Bin Laden Driver Could Stay Indefinitely at Gitmo (Not if McCain has his way.)

newsmax.com ^ | August 2, 2008 | staff

[kellynla]

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba -- The commander of the Guantanamo Bay detention center said Saturday he has been researching new potential accommodations for Osama bin Laden's driver, who could be held here indefinitely regardless of the verdict at his war crimes trial.

A jury of American military officers is expected to begin deliberations Monday in the case of Salim Hamdan, a Yemeni who faces a maximum life sentence on charges of conspiracy and supporting terrorism.

Even if he is found innocent, he may not leave this U.S. Navy base. The military retains the right to hold those considered to pose a threat to the United States _ even those who have been cleared of charges at Guantanamo's "military commissions."

The commander, Navy Rear Adm. David Thomas, said he has been looking for the most appropriate facility to isolate prisoners who have had their day in court.

"We would not house someone who has finished the military commissions process back ... with the general detainee population. They would be held separate from the other detainees," said Thomas, who added he would not build a new prison.

The tribunals' deputy chief defense counsel, Michael Berrigan, said the possibility of acquitted men remaining confined here reveals the proceedings as "show trials."

"What's the purpose here? Mr. Hamdan is going to be held until the government wants to release him," Berrigan said. "It really has no connection to the underlying reality."

Hamdan is the first prisoner to face a U.S. war crimes trial since World War II.

[kellynla]

For those who haven't heard, McCain wants to close Gitmo and move these war criminals to Leavenworth!

"Not on my watch, senator!"

Semper Fi, Kelly

[Perdogg]

The Head of Joint Chiefs of Staff wants to close gitmo, do the research. Gitmo will be a non issue for the next President.

[TomGuy]

For those who haven't heard, McCain wants to close Gitmo and move these war criminals to Leavenworth!

Addendum: On the first day of his Presidency!

Related links for the McCainiac revisionists who don't believe -- video with McCain's own words:

McCain to Close Club Gitmo "The first day I am President"
	Posted by advance_copy On 02/21/2007 7:33:23 PM CST · 85 replies · 1,092+ views YouTube.com ^ | 2/21/07 | Video Over the weekend, John McCain said in Iowa, "One of the things I would do, the first day I am President of the United States, is close Guantanamo Bay. I would close it and I would move those prisoners to Fort Leavenworth. It's become a symbol, which is very bad for America."

In his own words on Youtube video: McCain to Close Gitmo

[cricket]

Probably not happen on his watch either. . .

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

Right, and RINOs rule the GOP like a malignant growth. Thanks to the spineless Neocons who have lost all principle and who will vote for Satan himself if he had an “R” behind his name. All in the name of “winning at all costs”.

Keep on feeding the beast. It’s why we find ourselves in this mess today and it is a guarantee that it will get much worse.

[pnh102]

Thanks to the spineless Neocons who have lost all principle and who will vote for Satan himself if he had an “R” behind his name. All in the name of “winning at all costs”.

As opposed to the "principled conservatives" who stayed home in 2006 and cost us Congress? Did all those so-called "conservative Democrats" that were elected do anything to advance a conservative agenda?

This is another election where we are presented with 2 poor choices. In this situation, I am picking the least worst candidate who has a chance of winning. McCain 2008.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

This is the main reason why I’m voting for Obama.

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

You are simply too ignorant to know what really happened in 2006.

All exit polling clearly showed that Conservatives came to the polls during a mid-term in record numbers. It was also the record turn-out of independent/swing voters against the war that turned the election in favor of the Democrats.

It’s a fact, backed by reliable data. But then your type does not seem to be interested in facts, just knee jerking suppositions to react over.

[gitmogrunt]

McS.O.B. has a history of bedding down with islamic terrorists for their money, just do an internet search on “McCain and the KLA”.

[pnh102]

You are simply too ignorant to know what really happened in 2006.

Of course I am. How many "conservatives" on this website continue to say they won't vote for McCain because he's not conservative enough.

All exit polling clearly showed that Conservatives came to the polls during a mid-term in record numbers.

Heh. Exit polling. We all know that is a crapshoot at best. If exit polls are so true, our choices would be Rudy Giuliani and Mrs. Bill Clinton. Besides, if what you claim is true, then why didn't any of the conservative candidates for president receive any real backing from all these conservatives you speak of?

[DoughtyOne]

This is one time when I think the Joint Chief is dead wrong.

When these terrorists are housed on U.S. soil, you’ll see all the lefties parading out in front of the prison. You’ll see defense attorneys out front doing interviews damning our military for detaining them. You’ll see amnesty international parading out front trashing the U.S. The media will have a field day vilifying everything good, and praising everything bad.

This will turn into one big propaganda windfall for the terrorists, and you can read that as partially our network news teams. It will get very ugly.

[Man50D]

In this situation, I am picking the least worst candidate who has a chance of winning. McCain 2008.

That line of thinking will only allow "the least worst" to become worse with each succeeding election.

[Man50D]

A history of McCain's faux conservatism thanks to Doughtyone

John McCain's Whimsical World of Conservatism
Food for thought for the Hillary Clinton Wing of the GOP

1982/00/00 McCain enters Congress, with his family accepts first of nine trips some aboard Keating's leer jet, three of which include stayovers at Keating's Caribbean resort (goes unreported for up to 7 years)
1983/09/28 McCain joins 26 other Republicans to vote with the Majority Party Congressional Democrats to demand U.S. Troops exit Lebanon, winds up on the losing
1983/09/28 Cindy McCain and her father invest $359,100 in a Charles Keating strip mall
1987/00/00 McCain has received $112,000 by this time for Congressional and Senate campaigns, from Charles Keating, his relatives, and his employees, the largest amount to any Keating 5 member
1987/04/02 McCain joins four Democrats to intercede on behalf of his S&L Owner friend Keating with Ed Gray, chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board and also banking regulators (2 meetings)
1988/02/11 McCain votes to affirm Anthony Kennedy as a justice for the SCOTUS

1989/00/00 McCain discloses Keating trips as his involvement in the S&L scandal breaks, reimbursing $13,433.00 with no repercussions as late as seven years after the fact
1993/10/10 McCain co-sponsors an unsuccessful bill to cut off funding of United States troops in Somalia
1993/08/10 McCain joins the Democrats and most Republicans voting to confirm Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the worst justice on the court today. Three Republicans vote Nay.
1993/01/13 McCain and Kerry release the Select Committee report urging the MIA issue be put to rest so that Vietnam could be granted normalized relations with the U.S., over objections by MIA family and veterans groups. Video1 Video2 ( I do not endorse all of the information presented in video1 here. The video does touch on a number of topics, and I think most are germane ) If I could have found video that contained most of this information without touching on McCain's POW experience I would have posted it instead. Still, there are parts of McCain's POW experience that are troubling. I'd just rather not go there. Video2 shows how one MIA family rep is treated, confirming some of the reports in Video1.
1994/07/24 McCain joins with the Democrats to confirm nominee Stephen Breyer to be an Associate Justice on the SCOTUS. Nine Senators voted Nay...
1997/00/00 McCain leads the opposition to the Coats Amendment, preventing government funded fetal tissue research ( derived from "a legal act" [abortion] ) Amendment defeated!
1999/08/19 McCain stated, ""Certainly in the short term, or even the long term, I would not support repeal of Roe vs. Wade,"
John McCain: George Soros' Useful Idiot? McCain joins Democrat Russ Feingold to introduce Campaign Finance Reform, an effort funded by George Soros Article
2000/00/00 McCain was the keynote speaker at the ultra-liberal Philadelphia convention sponsored by George Soros while John F. Kerry keynoted at another Soros event on the same day...
2000/11/20 McCain participates in the production of a gun control spot for Oregon's Proposition Five. (Circa this date, prior to the November election.) Article
2001/00/00 McCain founded the Reform Institute funded by George Soros
2001/05/15 McCain introduces the Gun Show Loophole bill S890, with Carper, Lieberman, DeWine, Clinton, and Schumer co/sponsoring Analysis
2003/03/19 McCain joins Democrats to vote against drilling in ANWR
2003/10/30 McCain joins Lieberman again, this time to introduce the Climate Stewardship Act (Gorebal worming et al) Thomas Bill S139
2004/06/04 McCain signs letter with 58 Senators, "We write to urge you to expand the current federal policy concerning embryonic stem cell research."
2004/08/05 McCain announces he deplores the Swift Boat adds against Senator John Kerry, and asks the White House to refute them
2005/00/00 McCain resigns from the Reform Institute he founded with Communist billionaire George Soros
2005/01/28 McCain declares, "I want us in the ICC (International Criminal Court)", but I would like to see more safeguards first
2005/05/12 McCain joins Ted Kennedy to introduce McCain/Kennedy immigration legislation that would wind up making illegal immigrants citizens
2006/04/28 McCain states, "I would rather have a clean government than one where quote First Amendment rights are being respected that has become corrupt."
2006/09/06 McCain joins Dole to write op-ed for the Washington Post, states in part, "We should publicly remind Khartoum that the International Criminal Court has jurisdiction to prosecute war crimes..."
2007/02/17 McCain states he will close Guantanamo Bay terrorist detainment center on his first day in office video (same as date link on the left)
2007/03/22 McCain gets the pledged support of Chuck and Sue Cobb, Jeb Bush's Florida Director of the Free Trade of the Americas Agreement effort
2007/06/00 McCain joins Baldwin, Shays and Meehan to file an amicus brief against the Wisconsin Right to Life organization brief The wrong side of a pro-life issue, helping pro-abort Feingold
2007/06/18 McCains Gitmo problem, close the base, grant Geneva Convention status, stop water boarding...
2007/10/25 McCain still wants us to sign the L.O.S.T. treaty in time, but does have concerns over sovereignty issues.
2008/03/00 McCain makes his first attempt to tell a state (North Carolina) Republican Party what to do. The RNC joins him.
2008/03/24 McCain hires Meg Whiteman to cochair his Presidential campaign. Whiteman is another wishy washy at best Independent, who has donated to leftist candidates and still doesn't have a clue what side to come down on with regard to illegal immigration. She is leaning toward running for Governor in California and being courted by it's Republican leadership. Links to CalCowGirl's comments regarding Whiteman's donations. Article above.
2008/03/26 McCains speech to the World Affairs Council, Europe may get veto power over some of our foreign policy...
2008/04/08 McCain casts last Senate vote during his Presidential Campaign. By the EOBD 06/24/08, he has missed 367 votes or 61.4% of the Senate votes in the 110th Congress. His last vote before the one he cast on April 8 was cast on 03/14/08. Link
2008/05/09 McCains interview with O'Reilly... I won't drill in ANWR... it's pretty... I'm an environmentalist.
2008/05/12 McCain Joins the Goreball Worming Cult, sounding more like Al Gore every day... McCain's Oregon add Video
2008/05/13 2008/05/13 McCain takes an Environmental walk, with the leader of the Cascade Land Conservancy
2008/05/15 2008/05/15 McCain states he will appoint Democrats to his administration, during a Republican teleconference and during a Columbus stump speech
2008/05/27 McCain announces support for severe cutbacks on our nuclear weapons, withdrawing battlefield nukes from Europe and giving our nuclear waste to an international body
2008/06/04 McCain states, "I disagreed strongly with the Bush administration's mismanagement of the war in Iraq."
2008/06/14 McCain tells Clinton supporters they should back him because he voted for Ginsberg and Breyer Said this to Conservatives on 2008/05/07
2008/06/21 It is announced McCain and Obama will address open borders group in Los Angeles on July 18th, 2008, Communists and worst of U.S. Illegal Alien apologist groups...
2008/06/21 McCain and team realize he has so little credibility on judicial appointments, that they announce he will let Fred Thompson vet his judges. That's 06/21/08's version of truth...
2008/06/28 McCain declares, "I will make comprehensive immigration reform my “top priority,” during my first 100 days in office. He assures Latino leaders that they will have an ally in the White House.

McCain's immigration plan is far tougher than the REAL amnesty granted by Ronald Reagan.

You don't get it. McCain's idea of a plan is his euphemistic spin "immigration reform". In other words amnesty for illegal aliens. Regardless of that fact, we don't need a "plan" from McCain or any other socialist politician! We already have a plan in the form of our federal immigration laws. Specifically The Federal Immigration and Nationality Act. The only plan that is needed is for the people to keep pressure on politicians, including McCain, to ensure our laws are strictly enforced.

[DoughtyOne]

One additional fact. Reagan tried to provide amnesty to 1.5 million, and 3.5 million obtained it. He then tried to toughen up immigration law to put an end to illegal immigration, but none of our Presidents enforced the new laws. Today McCain tries to provide amnesty to 12 million, and anywhere from 20 to 35 million will obtain it. He then plans to offer a new avenue of entry into this nation, that will see millions more come over legally. And that will take place.

[08bil98z24]

As opposed to the "principled conservatives" who stayed home in 2006 and cost us Congress? Did all those so-called "conservative Democrats" that were elected do anything to advance a conservative agenda? This is another election where we are presented with 2 poor choices. In this situation, I am picking the least worst candidate who has a chance of winning. McCain 2008.

Amen to that.

[08bil98z24]

That line of thinking will only allow "the least worst" to become worse with each succeeding election.

And the other line of thinking (Not voting for the less of two evils) will produce even worst results ...

Spin it anyway you want ... a vote not going to McCain is a vote for Obama. This subject is not up for debate or argument ...

[08bil98z24]

Of course I am. How many "conservatives" on this website continue to say they won't vote for McCain because he's not conservative enough.

Lots do, however I am convinced that those "lots" are actually a rather small amount of people.

Besides, if what you claim is true, then why didn't any of the conservative candidates for president receive any real backing from all these conservatives you speak of?

I have also asked that question a lot ... and again I'm convinced it is a relatively small amount of people ... so small that it did not make a difference at all ...

The other big argument I hear is Liberals (Democrats) picked McCain as the nominee ... I do not buy that argument for one minute either ... as to believe that is to believe Conservatives and Republicans are completely helpless

[Man50D]

Spin it anyway you want ... a vote not going to McCain is a vote for Obama.

There is no spin in post#13. It's all facts. A vote for either one is a vote for a socialist regardless whether there is a D or R after their names.

This subject is not up for debate or argument ...

You must have been away from FR for awhile. McCain's faux Conservatism has been debated and argued on many threads for several months.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Some of these people are so silly.

The irony is as clear as the nose on their own faces.

McCain crosses over GOP lines to go with the enemy and vote liberal, time after time.

Then, these so-called "conservatives" on FREE REPUBLIC, blow a gasket when someone threatens to cross over GOP lines to vote CONSERVATIVE, in the same John McCain-type independent maverick spirit.

What a bunch of frippin hypocrites.

[compound w]

To me, it looks like most of the gasket blowing comes from the anti-McCain crowd. I mean, who’s shouting with capital letters?

In fact, I don’t care how anyone votes—it’s up to them. But this conservative is solid as a rock comfortable voting for John McCain. See? No gaskets blown.