Revenge of the ‘Shoe Bomber’

Wall Street Journal ^ | JULY 29, 2009 | DEBRA BURLINGAME

[KeyLargo]

Revenge of the ‘Shoe Bomber’

The terrorist sues to resume his jihad from prison.

The Obama administration caves in.

DEBRA BURLINGAME

Last May at National Archives, President Barack Obama warned that “more mistakes would occur” if Congress continued to politicize terrorist detention policy and the closure of Guantanamo Bay. “[I]f we refuse to deal with those issues today,” he predicted, “then I guarantee you, they will be an albatross around our efforts to combat terrorism in the future.”

On June 17, at the Administrative Maximum (ADX) penitentiary in Florence, Colo., one of those albatrosses, inmate number 24079-038, began his day with a whole new range of possibilities. Eight days earlier, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Denver filed notice in federal court that the Special Administrative Measures (SAMs) which applied to that prisoner—Richard C. Reid, a.k.a. the “Shoe Bomber”—were being allowed to expire. SAMs are security directives, renewable yearly, issued by the attorney general when “there is a substantial risk that a prisoner’s communications, correspondence or contacts with persons could result in death or serious bodily injury” to others. --------- What drove the Obama administration’s decision to cave in to Reid’s demands? The president after all has repeatedly pitched supermax and the federal prison system as a secure alternative to Guantanamo, citing the fact that it handles “all manner of violent and dangerous criminals.” Yet the last thing he needs, as his administration engages in its hasty effort to shut Gitmo down by a fast-approaching deadline, is for lawyers and human-rights activists to use a hunger-striking, near-death prisoner to launch a propaganda campaign fashioned right out of the Gitmo detainees’ playbook. Lawyers who shamelessly compared Gitmo to Nazi concentration camps would think nothing of casting supermax as the next “symbol of America’s shame” and a “rallying cry for our enemies.” ..........

[KeyLargo]

And Obama will close Gitmo and bring the terrorists to U.S. federal prisons starting with Illinois where they will have all of the rights of U.S. citizens.

[livius]

From the outset of his administration, Mr. Obama has been trying to thread the needle between national security policy and his ideological affinity with civil liberties lawyers and human-rights activists

I think his ideological affinities with Islam are more important.

This evil man is going to destroy our country.

[Eye of Unk]

Catch and Release, or rather the Muslim marching song, “Die Another Day”.

[SmokingJoe]

“This evil man is going to destroy our country. “

No question about that.
Mark my words, his soft on terrorism policies and his bringing the Gitmo terrorist vermin to American soil is going to lead to even more terrorist attacks on this country.
Fort Hood and Detroit are just the harbingers of more to come.

[1Old Pro]

The Obama Company Line:

These policies were put in place 2-3 years ago....

It’s Bush’s fault.

This administration can’t protect a White House Party from being infiltrated, they certainly have not protected this country which has had TWO terrorist attacks in just months!!

[PGalt]

Thanks very much for posting, KeyLargo.

HOORAY Debra Burlingame! OUTSTANDING article!

Holder needs to resign. Obama needs to be impeached. The CinC needs to be court martialed.

Who will protect us from our protectors?

[onyx]

Just think, Obama is about to release 90 Yemeni’s in GITMO back to Yemen!

[massgopguy]

Did Obama really accuse the Congress of politicizing Gitmo? It was his whole platform!

[onyx]

Yes, but only the Republicans in congress.

[The Great RJ]

I am still betting that one or more of the Gitmo detainees when they get to US courts will be released on either a legal technicality, on bail or be acquitted.