View Full Version : President and "hasty" decision
Seems the order to close Gitmo was a "hasty decision"
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/05/20/white_house_closing_gitmo_a_hasty_decision_96593.h tml
I wonder how many of the "Hope and Change" plans are also "hasty decisions"?
Dick Cheney - Dec 15, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE4BE6T120081215
"......The vice president said Bush and many other people would like to close Guantanamo Bay but other issues had to be addressed first.
"That includes, what are you going to do with the prisoners held in Guantanamo? And nobody yet has solved that problem," Cheney said....."
So VP Cheney knew this back in Dec, 2008 and it only took the New President 4 months in office to figure it out and come to the same conclusion? He's a fast learner I guess.
This is going to be just one of many things that he will have to back peddle.:D
Dick Cheney - Dec 15, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE4BE6T120081215
"......The vice president said Bush and many other people would like to close Guantanamo Bay but other issues had to be addressed first.
"That includes, what are you going to do with the prisoners held in Guantanamo? And nobody yet has solved that problem," Cheney said....."
So VP Cheney knew this back in Dec, 2008 and it only took the New President 4 months in office to figure it out and come to the same conclusion? He's a fast learner I guess.
Free them into the Negev desert gets my vote.
The 'hasty decision' was electing a president who offered himself as all things to too many different groups of people.
Because of his own strident rhetoric during the campaign, the president has placed himself in a position where he risks considerable political fall out for continuing the policies of his predecessor.
The following examples are from here (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/28/us/politics/28text-obama.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all).
Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but, really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right more than 90 percent of the time?
(APPLAUSE)
I don't know about you, but I am not ready to take a 10 percent chance on change.
....
If John McCain wants to follow George Bush with more tough talk and bad strategy, that is his choice, but that is not the change that America needs.
Choices that might otherwise have been presented as the product of a careful review of standing policies will be viewed either as flip flops by his opponents or disappointing betrayals by his most avid fans. He has no one but himself to blame.
Slantwire
05-21-2009, 06:26
Free them into the Negev desert gets my vote.
Isn't it about time we started a Mars colony?
Or, in the interest of saving money, we could drop them off about halfway between Mauritius and Perth.
MOO - send the shia to a sunni dominated country and the sunni to a shia dominated country - circumcise them before release (preferably without anesthesia and using a rusty tin can lid) and let the host country know the new guys in town were all converted while in captivity. Voila'! ;)
Richard's $.02 :munchin
incarcerated
05-21-2009, 07:24
Isn't it about time we started a Mars colony?
.
Too expensive.
SF_BHT knows about this cost-effective facility in Texas:
http://www.professionalsoldiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23358
It’s perfect.
A couple of thousands of words worth of truth in these two cartoons. :D
Richard's $.02 :munchin
Utah Bob
05-28-2009, 08:43
Saw the video clip of him signing the order to close Guantanamo 2 days into his presidency. After signing he asked one of his people, "Do we have a separate Executive Order on the disposition of the prisoners?"
Coulda heard a pin drop.:eek:
KEEP GITMO GOING: The case for retaining the vital detention and interrogation facility at Guantánamo Bay
There are significant issues of national security that must be addressed before Guantánamo is closed and detainees transferred into the United States. Until these risks are adequately addressed and security assured, no detainee should be removed from Guantánamo. While proponents of closure may perceive a public relations benefit to closing this facility, the preservation of public safety and national security must remain paramount in determining U.S. policy on this critical matter.
http://204.96.138.161/upload/wysiwyg/center%20publication%20pdfs/Kimball%20&%20Lerner%20-%20Keep%20Gitmo%20Going%20FINAL.pdf
Richard's $.02 :munchin
mojaveman
05-29-2009, 10:31
It is amazing. This guy ran a rock star campaign with lots of promise of change with no real plan. Now that the democrats are in office they are trying to figure out what to do. They still have no plan and IMHO are making it up as they go along. IMHO they should close gitmo and move the prisoners to a new camp outside the county location unknown to the general public. Some south pacific island with no population would be good. I know I know not going to happen, just thinking out loud.
Excellent idea, let's move all of the Guantanamo detainees to the Eniwetok Atoll in the South Pacific and then begin testing atomic weapons there again. We won't need night vision devices anymore because we'll be able to see them after they start glowing.
BFF. ;)
Richard's $.02 :munchin
Palau to take Uighur detainees from Guantanamo Bay
Ray Lilley, AP, 10 Jun 2009
The tropical Pacific island nation of Palau announced Wednesday it will accept up to 17 Chinese Muslims who have languished in legal limbo at Guantanamo Bay despite a Pentagon determination that they are not "enemy combatants."
China's Foreign Ministry had no immediate reaction to the decision by Palau to grant Washington's request to resettle the detainees from China's Uighur minority who had been incarcerated at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba. Palau is one of a handful of countries that does not recognize China and maintains diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
President Johnson Toribiong said Palau was accepting the detainees "as a humanitarian gesture" intended to help them restart their lives. His archipelago, with a population of about 20,000, will accept up to 17 of the detainees subject to periodic review, Toribiong said in a statement released to The Associated Press.
"This is but a small thing we can do to thank our best friend and ally for all it has done for Palau," he said.
A former U.S. trust territory in the Pacific, Palau has retained close ties with the United States since independence in 1994 when it signed a Free Compact of Association with the U.S.
While it is independent, it relies heavily on U.S. aid and is dependent on the United States for its defense. Native-born Palauans are allowed to enter the United States without passports or visas.
The Obama administration sought a solution for the detainees after facing fierce congressional opposition to releasing them on U.S. soil despite a Pentagon determination that they were not "enemy combatants."
Palau, made up of eight main islands plus more than 250 islets, is best known for diving and tourism and is located some 500 miles (800 kilometers) east of the Philippines in the Pacific Ocean.
A federal judge last year ordered the Uighur detainees released into the United States after the Pentagon determined they were not "enemy combatants." But an appeals court halted the order, and they have been in legal limbo ever since.
U.S. officials have not said publicly where the detainees might be sent, but said privately that Palau was a prime candidate for their relocation.
Asked Tuesday about discussions with Palau on the Uighurs, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly declined to comment beyond saying the U.S. is "working closely with our friends and allies regarding resettlement" of detainees at Guantanamo.
Two U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. was prepared to give Palau up to $200 million in development, budget support and other assistance in return for accepting the Uighurs and as part of a mutual defense and cooperation treaty that is due to be renegotiated this year.
The U.S. would not send the Uighurs back to China for fear they will be tortured or executed. Beijing says Uighur insurgents are leading an Islamic separatist movement in China's far west and wants those held at Guantanamo to be returned to China.
In 2006, Albania accepted five Uighur detainees from Guantanamo but has since balked at taking others, partly for fear of diplomatic repercussions from China.
The State Department said last week that Daniel Fried, the career diplomat who was named earlier this year to oversee Guantanamo's closure, had visited Palau but offered no details on his mission. Fried has been negotiating with third countries to accept many of the Guantanamo detainees.
Australia and Germany already have Uighur populations, making those countries obvious candidates.
Australia recently agreed to review a request to accept some Uighurs, after twice rejecting it from the United States. Germany has been reluctant to accept any detainees unless the United States takes some, too.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090610/ap_on_re_au_an/us_guantanamo_palau
So they get $200,000,000 and all they have to do is "take" 17 Uighurs.
I didn't see anything in there about having to "keep" them.
After a few months of quiet island living a fishing boat lands a small launch in an sheltered bay and "poof" they're gone and so is our $200,000,000.
Palau was probably getting the $$ anyway - the Uighur deal seems like a political move to 'seal the deal' in Congress - and maybe the Palau fishermen need some good bait for chumming. ;)
Richard's $.02 :munchin
Defender968
06-10-2009, 09:46
You know I've been to Palau, it's a beautiful Island (well a chain of islands actually), it would be a shame to ruin it by dropping off a bunch of pissed off idiots. I sure hope they have a good plan, but I highly doubt it.
alright4u
06-10-2009, 10:26
No businessman could run a business like this country is being run now. Not a single one of us could manage our finances by spending more then we make every month.
greenberetTFS
06-10-2009, 14:13
Look guys give these GITMO rehabilitated future citizens a break.... :rolleyes: All they are asking for is a chance to show us,but primarily BHO that his trust in them is well rewarded.......:eek: He should show us his faith in these recently released felons by putting them on the gardening crew or other utilities at the WH,close to his family as a show of gesture in his belief in their rehabilitation......... Come on guys,lets just forgive and forget,don't you think these poor souls have suffered enough..........:boohoo
GB TFS :munchin
China wants 'em back...so they can attend a 5 minute human rights seminar to be held in a public square. ;)
Richard's $.02 :munchin
China Demands U.S. Send Guantanamo Uighurs Back
Reuters, 11 Jun 2009
China demanded on Thursday that the United States return 17 Chinese Muslims held at Guantanamo Bay to China and not send them to the Pacific island nation of Palau, which has agreed to accept the detainees.
Palau's government said it would accept the detainees, known as Uighurs, both as a humanitarian gesture and to help President Barack Obama fulfill his promise to close the controversial prison for foreign terrorism suspects on the U.S. Naval base in Cuba.
Many in the U.S. Congress oppose transferring them to U.S. soil when the prison is closed.
China sees the 17 as terrorist suspects, and has repeatedly called for their return.
"China demands the U.S. side implement relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council as well as live up to international anti-terrorism obligations, stop the transfer of these suspects to any third country and repatriate them to China," Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qin Gang told a news conference.
"China opposes any third country accepting these suspects," he added.
"The 17 Chinese terrorist suspects held in Guantanamo are members of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement, which has been listed as a terrorist group by the UN Security Council," Qin said.
The Uighur detainees come from China's largely Muslim region of Xinjiang in the far west, a vastly different landscape from Palau, whose visitor's bureau describes it as the "world's most beautiful tropical paradise" with pristine beaches and unspoiled reefs and caves.
Despite being cleared of terrorism allegations, the Uighurs remained stuck at Guantanamo Bay while U.S. officials hunted for a country that would take them in.
The group of Uighurs had been ordered by a U.S. federal judge to be freed in the United States, but an appeals court ruled in April that the judge did not have the authority to give such an order.
Chinese officials have said Uighur militants seeking an independent "East Turkestan" are among the biggest threats to the country's stability, a key issue ahead of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic on October 1.
But human rights groups and Uighur activists say Beijing grossly exaggerates the threat to justify harsh controls.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090611/ts_nm/us_china_usa_uighurs_1