5 Ex-Secretaries of State: Close Guantanamo Bay camp, open talks with Iran

ap ^ | March 27, 2008 | Associated Press

[Flavius]

ATHENS, Ga. (AP) - Five former U.S. secretaries of state are urging the next presidential administration to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp and open a dialogue with Iran. Each says closing the facility in Cuba would bolster America's image abroad. Regarding Iran, they say it's important to maintain contact with adversaries and allies alike.

[DoughtyOne]

The former officials are Colin Powell, Henry Kissinger, James Baker, Warren Christopher and Madeleine Albright, and worked for Democratic and Republican administrations.

There’s the names of the people I won’t be looking for advice from, from here on out.

Baker, I thought you had more sense than that. Yikes.

[Shady]

All five of them are members in good standing of the dementia wing of the Autocratic Party. Negotiate with Iran. Me things Mahamood subscribes to the delay whilst I enrich enouh gas to deliver my negotiation directly to Tel Aviv.
“The former officials are Colin Powell, Henry Kissinger, James Baker, Warren Christopher and Madeleine Albright, and worked for Democratic and Republican administrations.”

[trumandogz]

James Baker and Hank Kissenger.

You should be ashamed of yourselves.

Reagan and Nixon would not be proud.

[daler]

I’m confident McCain would be quite comfortable with 3 of the 5...

[CutePuppy]

Each says closing the facility in Cuba would bolster America's image abroad.

How, why, with whom, for what, seriously?

More likely they will (rightly) take it as an admission of error and guilt, and attacks will intensify on other "fronts". "Ugly is only skin-deep, but stupidity is to the bone"...

[trumandogz]

McCain agrees with all five of them!

[CutePuppy]

Baker, I thought you had more sense than that.

No, you didn't... Remember, in 2006 Baker was one of the main driving forces behind "Iraq Study Group / ISG" Report, which advocated the same thing?

[shove_it]

The article did not mention how many Gitmo detainees each of these five brilliant ex Secs. of State are willing to take into the confines of their own homes for safe keeping.

[WorkerbeeCitizen]

Sounds like some major arm twisting and favor call ins to me.

[Cindy]

A Look at Iran:

http://www.truthusa.com/IRAN.html

[Kakaze]

Each says closing the facility in Cuba would bolster America's image abroad

ah well first I don't care who likes us and who doesn't right now.

Second, if we suddenly opened a carbon market , signed kyoto, raised gas prices to mirror europe ( just to fit in ) , socialized medicine and adopted the old French work week.......they would still hate us.

[CutePuppy]

No, the emphasis is on "the next presidential administration..." which is a fait accompli anyway - McInsane already made his preference clear in favor of closing Gitmo.

So, no risk and all the glory to them when it happens, no matter who will be in the "the next presidential administration". They can't lose.

[SkyPilot]

_{Senator Joseph McCarthy sent this telegram to President Truman two days after claiming that he had identified "205 card-carrying" members of the Communist party working in the U.S. State Department.}

_{A draft of President Harry Truman's unsent 1950 response to Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-WI), who had sent Truman a breathless six-page telegram vowing to bring down the careers of 57 "communist" State Department employees.}

Too bad for the State Dept that the de-classifed Verona cables that emerged from the collapsed Soviet Union proved that the State Dept was infested with Communists - including Alger Hiss.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alger_Hiss

How much should we trust the State Dept?

[GAB-1955]

I would close Guantanamo if it’s giving us bad publicity, but I would not move these people out of detention. I am sure there are places in North Dakota or Alaska that we could put a military detention center.

[carton253]

I’m sorry, you must not know James Baker all that well. LOL!

[Man50D]

I would close Guantanamo if it’s giving us bad publicity, but I would not move these people out of detention. I am sure there are places in North Dakota or Alaska that we could put a military detention center.

These people are the enemy seeking to destroy the U.S. and you're worried about negative publicity based on how we are perceived by other countries?

I can't think of a worse reason to determine the location of an enemy prison than one based on perceived political correctness.

[balch3]

Baker’s think tank at Rice University is chock full of liberals.

[peyton randolph]

I am sure there are places in North Dakota or Alaska that we could put a military detention center.

---

Never.

They'll have ACLU lawyers lined up around the block to represent them and a bunch of Carter/Clinton judicial appointees ready to give them the same rights as U.S. citizens under the Constitution.

If we close Gitmo, the last act should be to either line up these terrorists against a wall for a firing squad or dump them at 30,000 feet on a European country that's been whining about their rights.

[ryan71]

“Colin Powell, Henry Kissinger, James Baker, Warren Christopher and Madeleine Albright”

I see Alexander Haig aint in there. Ha!