Obama’s Plan to Close Gitmo…Was Bush’s Plan 3yr Ago

Yep, just like President Obama took his plan for Iraq, his bailout plans, and more now he’s trying to market his “plan” for closing Gitmo…straight from George W Bush’s Sept 6, 2006 speech. Time heals all wounds, and I guess 3yrs is enough time for the Democrats to forget they once opposed this plan.

OBAMA’s PLAN:(quotes below)
1) Try criminals in Federal courts
2) Military Tribunals
3) Release ones ordered released by courts
4) Transfer as many as possible to other countries
5) Hold really bad guys until we can figure out how to hold them w out trial indefinitely by legal means

BUSH’S Sept 6, 2006 PLAN: (quotes below)
1) Transfer as many as possible to other countries
2) Try criminals in Federal courts
3) Military Tribunals
4) Beg Congress to figure out how to hold the really bad guys without trial indefinitely by legal means
[note: President Bush’s plan didn’t include a provision for letting go Gitmo detainees who had been ordered released, but had yet to be released. This is because no one would take them, and they remain at Gitmo, but President Obama has said that somehow, someplace he wants them released.

OBAMA:

“First, when feasible, we will try those who have violated American criminal laws in federal courts - courts provided for by the United States Constitution.”
“The second category of cases involves detainees who violate the laws of war and are best tried through Military Commissions. Military commissions have a history in the United States dating back to George Washington and the Revolutionary War.”
“The third category of detainees includes those who we have been ordered released by the courts.”
“The fourth category of cases.......

Yep:

Also from FA:

Obama’s Gitmo “plan” is soaring rhetoric, riling his base by using a hodge podge of mistruths about terrorist trials in the US

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Related thread....mentioned by MataHarley:

Dueling Transcripts: Obama’s Continuing Campaign vs. Cheney, the Voice of Reason

MataHarley @ 12:50 pm

Mike’s A has already posted the contrasting transcripts of both the current POTUS and former Veep on another thread. There was certainly a boat load of soaring rhetoric of feel good BS and high minded moralith on Gitmo unloaded on the national viewing audience with which to take issue today.

But for the moment, I want to address Obama’s assertation that federal courts were adept at trying the “worst of the worst” detainees by holding up Zacarias Moussaoui, Ramzi Yousef and Ali Saleh al-Marri as examples. In fact, there is a vast difference between these men and their particular circumstances and those Obama wants to import to the US judicial system.

First, when feasible, we will try those who have violated American criminal laws in federal courts - courts provided for by the United States Constitution. Some have derided our federal courts as incapable of handling the trials of terrorists. They are wrong. Our courts and juries of our citizens are tough enough to convict terrorists, and the record makes that clear. Ramzi Yousef tried to blow up the World Trade Center - he was convicted in our courts, and is serving a life sentence in U.S. prison. Zacarias Moussaoui has been identified as the 20th 9/11 hijacker - he was convicted in our courts, and he too is serving a life sentence in prison. If we can try those terrorists in our courts and hold them in our prisons, then we can do the same with detainees from Guantanamo.

Recently, we prosecuted and received a guilty plea from a detainee - al-Marri - in federal court after years of legal confusion. We are preparing to transfer another detainee to the Southern District of New York, where he will face trial on charges related to the 1998 bombings of our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania - bombings that killed over 200 people. Preventing this detainee from coming to our shores would prevent his trial and conviction. And after over a decade, it is time to finally see that justice is served, and that is what we intend to do.

Ramzi Yousef was arrested in Pakistan, and extradited to the US in 1995 or early 1996. He was tried for crimes committed on US soil… i.e. the 1993 WTC bombing, and a 1994 bombing of an airliner. Note… crimes committed on US soil and against our federal laws. Not a conspiracy to commit a crime or support for jihad. There was also the letter he sent claiming responsibility as evidence, as well as his laptop files and computer disks.

Zacarias Moussaoui was educated in London, and lived in Okalahoma, taking flight training in 2001. He was arrested on US soil - in MN in 2001. I’ll repeat that… unlike Yousef, who was tried and convicted for “crimes” committed but arrested in Pakistan, Moussaoui was captured within the US borders, and prosecutors had substantial evidence of his culpability.

Ali Saleh al-Marri was initially detained in Peoria, IL under a traffic stop, and detained in civilian jails until he was designated an unlawful combatant a month or so later by the Bush administration. Ali Soufan’s questioning of Mohamed al-Kahtani, who mentioned al-Marri as a relative, led to terrorism charges. al-Marri, arrested and operating on US soils, was not transferred to Gitmo, but sent to the Naval Consolidation Brig in SC, and tried in US courts. Again… arrested and operating in the US, and on our soil.

I'm a simple person. I require things outlined and detailed before I commit. I know, I'm old-fashioned, but bear with me.

1) Why is Guantanamo so bad? Back when I was a kid, people used to brag about going to Cuber for a little R&R. The mob loved it. Sinatra and all the stars on Broadway loved it.

If they close the prison, they'll bring these detainees back to Federal Maximum Security Prisons. Marion, Illinois, goes down four stories underground with the worst on the lowest level. The one out in Colorado is solitary confinement — NO human contact. I hear they go nutz from never seeing anything but the four walls and their sink and toilet. So, this would be better for them?

2) How does bringing them back solve any problems of what to do with them? They still have no idea how to try some of them. They want to figure out how they can hold them legally without a trial.

Let me give them a hint — have them declared incompetent by a court of law. If they can't be out with the rest of society without hurting themselves or others, we call them “mentally ill”. We have places for the mentally ill who are a danger to themselves and others — they're called sanatoriums. They need to get their meds, be kept from society for the duration of their natural lives.

Am I missing something?

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