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Obama is keeping his campaign promise to shut down the military prison at Guantanamo Bay.
From Political Wire...
An executive order to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay is expected during President Obama's first week on the job -- and possibly on his first day, the AP reports.
"Obama's order will direct his administration to figure out what to do with the estimated 250 al-Qaida and Taliban suspects and potential witnesses who are being held at Guantanamo."
3 comments:
Gotta read to the end of the article....
"Obama's order will direct his administration to figure out what to do with the estimated 250 al-Qaida and Taliban suspects and potential witnesses who are being held at Guantanamo.
It's still unlikely the prison would be closed any time soon. Obama last weekend said it would be "a challenge" to close it even within the first 100 days of his administration."
Anyone care to guess how long it will take to "figure out what to do" with all the detainees. It is safe to bet that the Gitmo detention facility will still be open for monts to come.
Still better than where we are at right now.
It's important to get the logistics right. The point is that it sends a message to the rest of the world that we won't allow torture anymore.
Or the torture will happen somewhere else. Torture didn't happen because of Gitmo, and Gitmo didn't happen (entirely) because of torture.
The "problem" facing Gitmo is there are scores of prisoners whose only crime is being dangerous to America.
~ They can't be tried for crimes because they haven't really comitted any.
~ They can't be released because they'd attack America (supposedly).
~ You can't put them on American soil because they'd be entitled to court access, and let go.
~ You can't send them to forgeign countries because noone wants them.
The "solution" I've heard floated most often is to transfer the majority of Gitmo detainees to Bagram Air Force base in Afganistan, which exists in pretty much the same legal limbo as Gitmo.
If that's the solution, closing Gitmo is just a smoke screen for continuing the same policies as before.
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