Closing Guantánamo Fades as a Priority (Lindsey Graham attacks conservatives over "demagoguery")

The New York Times ^ | 2010-06-25 | Charlie Savage

[rabscuttle385]

WASHINGTON — Stymied by political opposition and focused on competing priorities, the Obama administration has sidelined efforts to close the Guantánamo prison, making it unlikely that President Obama will fulfill his promise to close it before his term ends in 2013.

When the White House acknowledged last year that it would miss Mr. Obama’s initial January 2010 deadline for shutting the prison, it also declared that the detainees would eventually be moved to one in Illinois. But impediments to that plan have mounted in Congress, and the administration is doing little to overcome them.

“There is a lot of inertia” against closing the prison, “and the administration is not putting a lot of energy behind their position that I can see,” said Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and supports the Illinois plan. He added that “the odds are that it will still be open” by the next presidential inauguration.

And Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who also supports shutting it, said the effort is “on life support and it’s unlikely to close any time soon.” He attributed the collapse to some fellow Republicans’ “demagoguery” and the administration’s poor planning and decision-making “paralysis.”

[rabscuttle385]

fyi

[Brugmansian]

unlikely that President Obama will fulfill his promise to close it before his term ends in 2013.

He made that promise? I don't recall him saying he would close it by 2013.

[Einherjar]

Time to implement the “Detroit Homestead Act” for the repentent terrorists.

[Bernard]

It’s the NYT; their facts are flexible.

[VaRepublican]

“In any case, one senior official said, even if the administration concludes that it will never close the prison, it cannot acknowledge that because it would revive Guantánamo as America’s image in the Muslim world.”
Hmmmmm and this is a problem because millions of muslims currently view the United States as a good buddy?

[jamaksin]

IIRC it was within one year of taking office, a very hard and fast commitment.

But, then, klintoon committed to getting US troops out of the Balkans "by Christmas" well over a decade ago.

dim-0-crats must use convenient clocks?

[Kansas58]

Tood Tiahrt, MY CONGRESSMAN, was key in “defunding” the closing of GITMO!

I am very proud of Tiahrt, on this one!

[RJL]

Lindsey Graham attacks conservatives...

It's what McCain and he do best.

[Cindy]

http://www.truthusa.com/911.html

#

Thread with ongoing info and updates:

Quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2167923/posts

Plans to close Gitmo anger 9/11 victims’ families
AP via WTOP.com News ^ | January 20, 2009 - 3:32am | By BEN FOX,
Posted on January 20, 2009 2:48:21 AM PST by Cindy

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - Plans to close Guantanamo are not sitting well with the Sept. 11 victims’ relatives who sat stunned while two alleged terrorists declared they were proud of their role in the plot.

(Excerpt) Read more at wtop.com ...

[Jim Noble]

Interesting that the NYT article is closed to comments...

[Darkwolf377]

The other day during the Rolling Stone interview scuffle, the radio had Lindsey Graham's comment about it, and I was like, "How does this little puke get to be the voice of the Republicans on all these things?" The only other republican heard from on the piece was John McCain.

We need to get some conservatives in there who know how to communicate our side of the story. Graham is such a wuss.

[Vaduz]

Lindsey Graham should know by now Obama’s word is useless.

[Stultis]

When Mr. Obama took office a slight majority supported closing it. By a March 2010 poll, 60 percent wanted it to stay open.

That sounds about right.

Aside from airy notions like "hope" and "change," Obama hasn't been able to convince the American people of any public policy he has advanced. Indeed, as in this case, he manages only to deconvince them. Thus the need to cram through policy "by any means necessary".

[norwaypinesavage]

This article is truly astounding. Had "The Onion" written it two years ago, it would have been dismissed as too improbable to be good satire. Every other sentence in the article reads like a Rush Limbaugh parody.

Some Examples:
"senior officials say privately that the administration has done its part, including identifying the Illinois prison — an empty maximum-security center in Thomson, 150 miles west of Chicago — where the detainees could be held. They blame Congress for failing to execute that endgame."
"The president can’t just wave a magic wand to say that Gitmo will be closed,” said a senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity."
" As a result, the Obama administration has been further entangled in practices many of its officials lamented during the Bush administration."

[shalom aleichem]

Is there no way that South Carolina will replace this joke of a Senator?

[elcid1970]

You heap coals of shame upon this South Carolinian’s head.

In 2008, Little Lord Flimsey Tinkerbelle won reelection in a landslide. His opponent Buddy Witherspoon didn’t even get the redneck vote.

There’s hope: watch out for conservative and Afghanistan vet Bill Connor.

[Gargantua]

O'Bongo said he'd close it "immediately" if he became president, back when he was first campaigning for the office. Problem is, he's still campaigning for the office now, two years after having usurped the seat he is Constitutionally ineligible to hold.

It's going to take a Hazmat team weeks to get the stench of this butt-bandit, this ass-monkey, this crease-weasel out of our White House once he's dragged out of there kicking and screaming by the Marine detail which serves the Office of the President.

When Palin beats him in '12 (assuming he's still around as the Democrat candidate by then, and not in jail with Blago, Rezko, Ayers and Dorn... [WOW! That sounds like a scumbag Chi-town law firm, doesn't it? Or maybe a coked-up, sissified, openly gay 60's acoustic rock band?]), I've got a smooth grand that says he throws a hissy and refuses to leave.

Bukkaki O'Bunga, The Crease Weasel. Kind of has a ring to it, dunnit? LOL One of my better nicknames for the anal douche, if I do say so myself.

And I do.

;-/

[NotSoModerate]

I don't recall him saying he would close it by 2013.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Exactly. He promised he'd close it in his first year.

[Common Sense 101]

I support Lindsey Graham “shutting it”...