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Sen. Webb reverses on Obama's Gitmo plans
The Hill ^ | 5/17/09 | Sam Youngman

Posted on 05/17/2009 9:06:13 AM PDT by NormsRevenge

With Capitol Hill Republicans cranking up the volume on the issue of where to send alleged terrorists detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Democratic Sen. Jim Webb (Va.) reversed himself Sunday, and questioned President Obama's "artificial timelines" for closing the facility.

Webb, appearing on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" with Arizona Republican Sen. Jon Kyl, said that after reviewing Obama's plans to close the facility within one year, he doesn't agree with the president's time schedule and he opposes bringing any detainees to U.S. soil.

"We spend hundreds of millions of dollars building an appropriate facility with all security precautions in Guantanamo to try these cases," Webb said. "There are cases against international law. These aren't people who were in the United States, committing a crime in the United States. These are people who were brought to Guantanamo for international terrorism. I do not believe they should be tried in the United States."

When pressed on the year deadline, Webb suggested the administration might have to be more flexible as it figures out where to send detainees.

"They've said a lot of things and taken a look and said some other things," Webb said. "So let's process these people in a very careful way and then take care of it."

He added: "I think we should defer to the judgment of the administration who is looking at this. I think we all are moving toward the right direction. But we shouldn't be creating artificial timelines."

Webb and Kyl also gave House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) the benefit of the doubt after she found herself on the losing end of a nasty battle with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) this week.

Kyl said that while it is a big deal that Pelosi would accuse the clandestine service of lying to her about the use of enhanced interrogation methods, he was willing to give her "the benefit of the doubt and say she doesn't remember."

"Although that's a pretty important thing not remember accurately," Kyl said. "I am less interested in investigating whether her memory or correct or she lied about it than I am in the policies that flow from the debate that we're having. I am not one who thinks we ought to have truth commissions and all of the rest of it and keep looking backward. I agree with the president. We've got enough on our plate, we need to look forward."

Webb said Pelosi's dispute with CIA is not "that big a deal."

"I mean, I think we have selective memories," Webb said.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Government; US: Virginia; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 111th; bhodod; cia; detainees; gitmo; jimwebb; obama; pelosi; reverses; va2009
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1 posted on 05/17/2009 9:06:13 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
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To: NormsRevenge

Webb develops working brain parts. Kyl’s nascent RINO tendencies emerge. I can only imagine Webb has been catching holy hell from his constituents about BO’s plan to bring terrorists to Virginia and is backtracking as fast as he can.


2 posted on 05/17/2009 9:09:57 AM PDT by La Lydia
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To: NormsRevenge
These people are Sybils. They have so many personalities they have a hard time keeping up with each other. Republicans should demand Bama keep his promise to free Gitmo guests and plant them in WDC liberal neighborhoods. I am sure there is a spare bedroom in the Clintons mansions or maybe Chuckie or Nancy, or any number of these ‘rich’ liberals.
3 posted on 05/17/2009 9:11:06 AM PDT by Just mythoughts (Bama and Company are reenacting the Pharaoh as told by Moses in Genesis!!!!!)
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To: NormsRevenge

Jim “spider” Webb getting tangled in his own doublespeak?


4 posted on 05/17/2009 9:13:55 AM PDT by PGalt
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To: NormsRevenge

like little cracks in the foundation, we will be seeing a lot of these sorts of defections. Wait til the TARP fraud begins to hit the fan for years to come.


5 posted on 05/17/2009 9:14:26 AM PDT by FastCoyote (I am intolerant of the intolerable.)
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To: Just mythoughts

Great thoughts, Just mythoughts!


6 posted on 05/17/2009 9:14:43 AM PDT by PGalt
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To: NormsRevenge
What? Democrat talking common sense. I assumed Webb would be a high level Obama Admin appointee or cabinet official by now, but maybe the relationship is no longer acrimonious.
7 posted on 05/17/2009 9:16:16 AM PDT by lt.america (Looking for a bailout)
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To: Just mythoughts

I agree with Webb on this one but the guy is a nutjob.


8 posted on 05/17/2009 9:19:17 AM PDT by cripplecreek (The poor bastards have us surrounded.)
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To: cripplecreek
I agree with Webb on this one but the guy is a nutjob.

Well put a 'timer' on your agreeing with him cause more than likely tomorrow his other personality will be showing up to clarify what he said yesterday.

9 posted on 05/17/2009 9:20:47 AM PDT by Just mythoughts (Bama and Company are reenacting the Pharaoh as told by Moses in Genesis!!!!!)
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To: NormsRevenge

Something has obviously happened to make some Dems start doing the Barack Backtrack.
It just occurs to Webb and Obama ...this.... week...????? that there are vile sub humans in Gitmo ?
Who long to behead Americans.
Some probably already have.
The internal polling must be causing flop sweat in some dark corners of the Democrat Socialist Party.
Jim Moran ,however,is still unconvinced.
He thinks the citizens of Alexandria will consider it their civic duty to open their arms
and their homes to terrorists.
Democrats are so lucky that the Republican SWSs (squishy weak sisters ) like Kyl and McCain continue to give them political cover.


10 posted on 05/17/2009 9:31:07 AM PDT by Wild Irish Rogue
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To: Just mythoughts

I certainly wouldn’t want to be one of his friends after he let his buddy try to carry his gun into the capital. That guy went under the bus so fast it made his head swim.


11 posted on 05/17/2009 9:34:13 AM PDT by cripplecreek (The poor bastards have us surrounded.)
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To: NormsRevenge

Sounds like Macaca

Pray for America


12 posted on 05/17/2009 9:44:38 AM PDT by bray (SarDate.2012)
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To: NormsRevenge

Webb put his finger to the wind and it got a bit chilly?


13 posted on 05/17/2009 9:53:29 AM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: NormsRevenge

“Reversed” = “flip-flopped.”

Irony?


14 posted on 05/17/2009 9:57:43 AM PDT by cranked
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To: NormsRevenge

Indelible images aare devastating politically; used correctly, they can change the entire playing field. People sitting on roofs in New Orleans during Katrina, George H.W. Bush not knowing how to use a supermarket barcode reader, etc.—the Democrats have been masters at using indelible images to destroy opponents.

Finally the Republicans are learning. When Newt Gingrich pointed out that when the Uyghur detainees saw a woman on their television set, they’d throw it across the room—that was an indelible image. You can’t get it out of your mind.

No sane person would want people like that in their town. A huge win for us.


15 posted on 05/17/2009 10:06:48 AM PDT by denydenydeny ("I'm sure this goes against everything you've been taught, but right and wrong do exist"-Dr a)
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To: NormsRevenge

This is a pretty good example of how effectively the democrat party enforces its own orthodoxy and keeps its disciples in line, unlike the republican party. If a republican had begun a process of self-immolation like Pelosi, others in the party would be piling on, hoping to separate themselves and garner good vibes from democrats and the press.

The idea that Webb, who likes to fashion himself a relentless warrior and independent thinker, approaches the idea of addressing Pelosi’s war crimes with such trepidation, shows how dangerous is it for one democrat to criticize another.


16 posted on 05/17/2009 10:33:48 AM PDT by DPMD (~)
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To: NormsRevenge

I’ll bet Webb had been catching holy hell ever since he indicated he hadnt made up his mind whether he was opposed to letting the Uighurs be released in Northern Virginia.

Some of the hell was probably from his own neighbors. Hence the change of heart.

I dont really care how it came about, just glad it happened.


17 posted on 05/17/2009 10:41:44 AM PDT by freespirited (Is this a nation of laws or a nation of Democrats? -- Charles Krauthammer)
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To: NormsRevenge
We spend hundreds of millions of dollars building an appropriate facility with all security precautions in Guantanamo to try these cases," Webb said.

Oh, so now all of a sudden you idiots are concerned about how taxpayer dollars are being spent?!!?!!!??!


18 posted on 05/17/2009 10:46:13 AM PDT by kromike
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To: Just mythoughts

>>>> Republicans should demand Bama keep his promise to free Gitmo guests and plant them in WDC liberal neighborhoods. <<<<<

The 17 “innocent” Uighurs (Chinese Muslim terrorists) are to be released from Gitmo into Fairfax County in Northern VA, which is a suburb of DC and, yes, has a plurality of liberal Rats and other retards these days, but also a large number of hardcore conservatives.

I hope they put the “innocent Uighurs” (aka Chinese Sunni Muslim terrorists) in tents located in Jim Webb’s back yard.


19 posted on 05/17/2009 6:15:37 PM PDT by angkor
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To: Wild Irish Rogue

>>>>> He thinks the citizens of Alexandria will consider it their civic duty to open their arms and their homes to terrorists. <<<<<

Moron must be thankful that he was (presumably) able to cut the deal to have KSM and his buddies imprisoned and tried in Alexandria, while pawning off the OTHER Sunni Muslim terrorists (aka “the innocent Uighurs”) as they are released into the public neighborhoods of Fairfax County *and* placed on the public dole (i.e., Fairfax County public welfare), *and* as they are given some kind of U.S. refugee visa which we can all safely predict will end up with citizenship rights in the U.S.A.

Now that Rat Moron has got them dumped in Wolf’s (Republican) district he can breathe a sigh of relief and run some significantly easier damage control in his own Rat district.


20 posted on 05/17/2009 6:24:47 PM PDT by angkor
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