Enlarging on Alan’s previous post, here’s a video discussing the “torture” that occurs at Gitmo:
Oh, and by the way, closing Gitmo? There’s another campaign promise down the drain. It played well in the blue states, of course, but since the president didn’t have a plan (viable or otherwise) for actually closing the place and re-housing those incarcerated there, no way that promise will be kept, especially since he promised that he’d close it in his first year as president.
I say, if you’re going to close Guantanamo, which, by all accounts, is actually a beautiful place with gorgeous weather year-round… If you’re going to close it and need to re-house the prisoners elsewhere, call Gov. Palin and strike a deal for an exclusive facility somewhere around, oh, maybe Point Barrow. Get some of those TARP funds for building the facility, put some unemployed Alaskans to work, give the Gitmo prisoners one last day of sunshine and warm temperatures, then fly them up to their new facility, Gitmo on the Arctic. Allahu Akbar, indeed.
Then, just for kicks, hire Donald Trump to build a resort and casino where the old facility was, then start selling tickets. The government would recoup all the costs of building Gitmo on the Arctic and rehabbing the original Gitmo within a year, I’d bet. After that, it’s all gravy.
Hey, there’s a new revenue source for the government! Bye bye deficit.
It’s interesting to watch the liberals try to squirm the contents of Gitmo onto American soil. After all, we have Super Max prisons, and we’ve housed terrorists from other attacks. Consider Mahhoud Maduh Salim… Busted for being part of then old Bin Ladin Gang… Hey… What threat could he possibly pose once in the old grey-bar hotel?
America needs to wake up to the fact that these guys mean business the likes of which Charlie Manson never dreamed.
Yup… You heard it right. I say that we stop all this “torture” (like waterboarding) of terrorist prisoners and start giving them the kind of health care that the rest of the world will envy! Hey, we can either give them a choice to talk and live the easy and all too well known “Gitmo Life”, or we can give them the “Ultimate Health and Conditioning Treatment” (or UHCT) free of charge. So what is the UHCT?
The UHCT is better treatment than what we give to our own jailed prisoners, recruits, and/or the mentally challenged. Here’s a typical week…
Monday: Let’s start off with a thorough physical…
Blood work.
Full body exam for stuff like testicular cancer.
Endoscopy of the urinary bladder via the penis (of course we provide local anesthesia!)
A thorough prostate exam.
Can’t leave out the gastrointestinal endoscopy (colon scope). Need to be complete.
A dental exam complete with fillings, root canals, and even extractions.
Tuesday/Thursday: Physical fitness
Why should the USMC have all the fun? Besides, terrorists need to get in shape too… 5 AM wake-up followed by a bunch of screaming pushups, running, and rock busting for everyone! The hotter the weather, the better.
Wednesday/Friday: Attitude adjustment days
This is tricky… We can’t be cruel… I’d suggest that in a spirit “Cultural Awareness”, we expose the errant little rascals to 16 hours of Yoko Ono music in solitary. (Obviously, we let the terrorists pray as their religion dictates — and they’re going to need to.)
Saturday/Sunday: Entertainment
I recommend endless loops of such classics as “The Love Boat” or “The Gong Show”.
Of course, this schedule will need some tweaking, but you get the idea. (How about “Tear Gas Tuesdays” or Tazer Thursdays”?)
Now about food… Bologna sandwiches seems to be sufficient for a certain sheriff in Arizona, but we still have to be culturally sensitive. So I suggest that we also offer plain yogurt, tofu, lima beans, and calves’ liver — now that’s health food! As a special treat, we could serve up non-alcohol beer. Living large!
No doubt about it, UHCT is really little more than going to a rigorous health retreat (and lots of folks pay good money for a week or two at a health spa!), or spending time in prison. We could even pipe in bird songs… Lots and lots of bird songs.
But just remember: After Sunday comes Monday.
Ummm… Maybe talking and relaxing at”Club Gitmo” ain’t so bad after all…
Fox is now breaking the news that President Obama will object to the release of the infamous pictures of the “degrading” techniques the U.S. military used on prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan. The ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act requesting the release of those images… So, it looks like the ACLU and the White House are about to lock horns.
Now about those CIA memos… And what of those military commissions? And what of Gitmo?
UPDATE: Via Sissy Willis, here’s Andrew McCarthy, in his own words, expounding on the necessity of his refusal to play ball with A.G. Holder. Thanks, Sissy!
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Holy cow, if there ever was a must-read article, this is it.
Former federal prosecutor Andrew J. McCarthy respectfully declines Attorney General Holder’s invitation to participate in a round table discussion described as “part of an ongoing effort to identify lawful policies on the detention and disposition of alien enemy combatants—or what the Department now calls “individuals captured or apprehended in connection with armed conflicts and counterterrorism operations.” And what the rest of us call terrorists.
Here’s why he’s declining, and he’s absolutely correct.
Whatever the good intentions of the organizers, the meeting will obviously be used by the administration to claim that its policy was arrived at in consultation with current and former government officials experienced in terrorism cases and national security issues. I deeply disagree with this policy, which I believe is a violation of federal law and a betrayal of the president’s first obligation to protect the American people. Under the circumstances, I think the better course is to register my dissent, rather than be used as a prop.
Moreover, in light of public statements by both you and the President, it is dismayingly clear that, under your leadership, the Justice Department takes the position that a lawyer who in good faith offers legal advice to government policy makers—like the government lawyers who offered good faith advice on interrogation policy—may be subject to investigation and prosecution for the content of that advice, in addition to empty but professionally damaging accusations of ethical misconduct. Given that stance, any prudent lawyer would have to hesitate before offering advice to the government.
The policies that the Obama administration is enacting are setting appalling precedents which are already having a chilling effect on the desire to participate. And really, they won’t actually be listening to anyone’s input, of course. As Mr. McCarthy so ably points out, it’s all about being able to say they sought “bipartisan support” before doing what they had decided to do anyway.
Consistent with that hyperbolic rhetoric, the President began his administration by promising to close the detention camp within a year. The President did this even though he and you (a) agree Gitmo is a top-flight prison facility, (b) acknowledge that our nation is still at war, and (c) concede that many Gitmo detainees are extremely dangerous terrorists who cannot be tried under civilian court rules. Patently, the commitment to close Guantanamo Bay within a year was made without a plan for what to do with these detainees who cannot be tried. Consequently, the Detention Policy Task Force is not an effort to arrive at the best policy. It is an effort to justify a bad policy that has already been adopted: to wit, the Obama administration policy to release trained terrorists outright if that’s what it takes to close Gitmo by January.
It’s a long piece, but a joy to read. Please do yourself a favor and read the whole thing.
Just who was it that was recently saying that Guantanamo Bay prisoners were no more dangerous in his district that at Gitmo? And who said that there’s “no reason not to put ‘em in prisons in the United States and handle them the way they would handle any other prisoners”? Oh yes, that would be John Murtha, Rep from PA.
I wonder how Rep. Murtha and his constituents, as well as the rest of the good citizens of Pennsylvania would like having these guys in the neighborhood:
“The five detainees at Guantánamo Bay charged with planning the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have filed a document with the military commission at the United States naval base there expressing pride at their accomplishment and accepting full responsibility for the killing of nearly 3,000 people.”
The New York Times report goes on to say that the detainees consider the accusations against them as an honor.
In their filing, the men describe the planning of the Sept. 11 attacks and the killing of Americans as a model of Islamic action, and say the American government’s accusations cause them no shame, according to the excerpts read by the government official.
“To us,” the official continued reading, “they are not accusations. To us they are a badge of honor, which we carry with honor.”
It appears that the men wrote the document at meetings they are permitted to conduct periodically at the detention camp without lawyers.
These men are proud to have planned the attacks on our soil which killed 3,000 Americans. They make me sick, and I hope they rot right where they are.
If Murtha has his way, I won’t be visiting Pennsylvania for a looooong time.
This is not a good story… Barack Obama is under siege from virtually every quarter. Let’s start at the beginning…
In the military, disobeying an order is a big deal… Disobeying an order from the Commander In Chief is almost unimaginable. From MSNBC:
In his Jan. 22 order, Obama promised to shut down the Guantanamo prison within a year. The order also froze all Guantanamo detainee legal cases pending a three-month review as the Obama administration decides where — or whether — to prosecute the suspects who have been held there for years, most without charges.
Two military judges granted Obama’s request for a delay in other cases.
But a third military judge, Army Col. James Pohl, defied Obama’s order by scheduling a Feb. 9 arraignment for al-Nashiri at Guantanamo. That left the decision on whether to continue to Crawford, whose delay on announcing what she would do prompted widespread concern at the Pentagon that she would refuse to follow orders and allow the court process to continue.
That bit about Col. Pohl is huge… Officers do not disobey orders from superiors, let alone the POTUS. (There are, by the way, methods by which a military member may refuse to execute an order when that order seems immoral or just flat out nuts. But defying an order is as grave as grave can get.)
Perhaps the larger concern here is the big picture of overall confusion in American government and the “in your face” challenges that President Obama faces both on the domestic and global fronts. Consider:
It’s no great secret that the current “Spending Bill” before the Senate is a Pelosi/Reid boondoggle, and Obama is struggling to find some sanity
The Steelers… the Eagles… The Terrorists? If PA Rep. John Murtha has his way, Pennsylvania may soon be home to former inmates of Guantanamo Bay, those gentle, mis-understood “political” prisoners, about whom it has been reported:
One detainee told his captor that when he was released he would track him and his family down on the Internet and “cut their throats like sheep.” Assaults by prisoners on guards, ranging from punches and body slams, to throwing objects, even feces and urine, are a near daily occurrence. One detainee has attacked his military guards more than 20 times, swearing each time to kill all of them when he is released.
With PresBO honing to make good on at least one campaign promise, it looks like the detention center at Guantanamo may be closing and the terrorists that are being held there moved elsewhere. But if the terrorists are removed from Gitmo, where will they go? Fear not! Murtha has extended an invitation to host them in Pennsylvania.
Rep. Murtha does not consider these men a threat to society, so he has offered to house them his district, where (in his words), “They’re no more dangerous in my district than in Guantanamo.” Right.
The horrible irony of this offer is simple: Murtha’s district includes Shanksville, PA. Yes, Shanksville, the town where, on September 11, 2001, the heroes of United Flight 93 won the first battle against radical Islam of the new millennium. This is so shameful that I have no words to describe it.
But I hope the people of Pennsylvania, and in particular, those citizens of Murtha’s 12th District, will speak out against this travesty in words so plain and unmistakable that even a tin-eared blowhard like Murtha will understand: terrorists DO NOT belong on American soil, in American prisons. And they most certainly do not belong anywhere near consecrated ground where American heroes died in a desperate attepmt to thwart the plans of the brothers-in-arms of those same terrorists.
Pennsylvanians, please do not let Rep. Murtha do this to you.
Watched a fascinating piece with Judge Andrew Napolitano today on FoxNews. He described a visit to Gitmo and the subsequent viewing of info gained from prisoners under “duress”. The judge seemed to have two impressions… These were/are very bad people, and the information gained would never stand in a court of law because of the way the intel was obtained.
Sometimes it’s too easy to lose sight of the barbarism of the individual Islamic terrorist through the smoke of the Islamofacist organization. So, just as a reminder, here is the story of Louis Pepe (a Manhattan jail guard) who tragically crossed paths with one of these fanatics.
Prosecutors have said Mr. Salim was a founding member of Al Qaeda. He pleaded guilty in April 2002 to stabbing Mr. Pepe in the eye. The sharpened comb penetrated Mr. Pepe’s brain and left him with severe speech impairments and significantly limited mobility.
The stabbing, on Nov. 1, 2000, was part of what prosecutors said was a larger plot to brutalize even more people, including Mr. Salim’s lawyers, whom he wanted replaced with new counselors.
Mr. Salim sharpened a comb using the underside of his concrete desk in his cell at the correctional center. He used the comb to attack Mr. Pepe in order to seize his keys to 10-South, a wing of the correctional center. Prosecutors have said he intended to free his co-defendants and take hostages.
”He’s cunning, he’s devious, he’s brutal,” a prosecutor, Robert Buehler, told Judge Batts in seeking a life sentence for Mr. Salim. Later, he added, ”Officer Pepe was truly a nice man and a good person, and Salim picked him for that very reason.”
More information on Mr. Pepe and his terrorist attacker can be found here.
As for Gitmo… If waterboarding, sleep deprivation, loud music, and even a good old fashioned butt kickin’ were used on this ilk, I’m not going to lose sleep… not if what the judge reported was legit. After all, they got it easy compared to Mr. Pepe.
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Posted by Alan Speakman 
Posted by Alan Speakman 