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Home Front: Politix
US military chief favors closing Guantanamo
2008-01-14
The US military chief said Sunday that "the alleged war on terror" detention center here should be shut down because of the damage its done to the US image in the world, but there are no plans to do so.

Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said no decisions have been made to close the facility and he was not aware it was even being considered because of the complex legal issues involved. "We certainly look at this mission as an enduring mission until someone comes in and shuts it down," he said. "I have no idea how long it will be. The political leadership would have to make that decision."

He made the comments to wire service reporters after a day of inspecting cell blocks and a maximum security court house being built for military trials of so called "high value" detainees. The new court house and a sprawling complex of trailers for lawyers and circus tents for media are scheduled to be completed by March 1, clearing the way for the first trials since the United States began airlifting prisoners here from Afghanistan on January 11, 2002.

"This is where the 9/11 people, when they are finally charged, will be tried," an officer said as he showed Mullen the unfinished court room, pointing out a glassed-in, sound proof gallery where reporters would be able to watch but not hear when classified evidence is introduced.
Or when the enclosures are slowly filled with water as final punishment for the offenders.
Only four detainees have been formally charged, but Commander Richard Haupt, a military spokesman at Guantanamo, said more detainees will be charged in the coming months.

Currently, the number of detainees at Guantanamo have dwindled to a low of 277 from a high of around 600 due to transfers and releases.

"The world is focused on what's going on here at Gitmo," Mullen told service members at an "all hands" meeting. "That's why we've got to get it right every single day, every single hour, every single minute," he said. "The consequences of getting it wrong are global," he added.

Asked whether the military is moving to slow close down Guantanamo, Mullen said he was "not aware that at this point there is anyone considering that."

"I am on record as saying we should do that," he added. "Secretary Gates is on record as saying we should do that. Even President Bush is on record as saying we should do that. But there has been no decisions made."
Notice the statement compared to the reporter's spin.
Mullen was asked later in the interview with traveling with him why he thought it should be closed down. "More than anything else, I just think its been the images -- what Gitmo has become around the world in terms of representing the United States. I believe from the standpoint on how it reflects on us, it has been pretty damaging," he said. "On the other hand there are some really, really bad people here who have perpetrated extraordinary crimes, for which -- potentially certainly -- they will go through some kind of due process, due legal process," he said.
Start the trials and provide some details and maybe it won't be so much of a problem.
And make clear that for the ones who we're willing to send home, the home countries have to take them, if only to jug them.
Posted by:gorb

#9  "We certainly look at this mission as a crusade an enduring mission until someone comes in and shuts it down," he said. "I have no idea how long it will be. The political leadership would have to make that decision."

Strangely worded indeed. A flag officer with... "no idea" as in clueless, or doesn't give a damn. Passing the decision process off to "political leadership." Unimpressive statements and the reference "political leadership" ....borderline oxymoronic.
Posted by: Besoeker   2008-01-14 23:03  

#8  I favor closing it, too.

The sharks around Cuba need something to eat....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2008-01-14 19:27  

#7  Someone might forget to pay the gas bill . . . .
Posted by: gorb   2008-01-14 18:37  

#6  good idea steve, but after he talks just leave muhmood outside
Posted by: sinse   2008-01-14 15:32  

#5  Sinse, I keep calling for a camp at 'Ice Station Zebra'. I suppose some regulars see it as one more of my lame jokes.

I'm not joking.

Recall Ice Station Zebra: a remote outpost in the Arctic. Even with global warming™ such places exist. Cold, remote, cold, distant, cold, isolated, and did I mention cold? No one needs to know about it, and no one would if I had my way. Gitmo is out in the open; you can't look past it.

But Ice Station Zebra is a place that would be a rumor, at most, a scare tactic to use on a truculant Mahmoud: no need to waterboard the misguided, just put them outside for a while in their skivvies. "Mighty cold out there today, Mahmoud, weatherman says it's not going to get up above -40. Sure you don't want to tell us about your friends?"

The whole problem of Gitmo is exactly what Adm. Mullen and 'Moose note: the world knows about it, and the squeamish and the 'tarded are unhappy. The answer is simple. Ice Station Zebra is a place that we never admit to, never confirm, always deny, and always use. Only Mahmoud knows for sure, and he won't be talking. After he does. You know.
Posted by: Steve White   2008-01-14 12:57  

#4  I have long suspected that Gitmo was a "Potemkin village", where we would put unimportant nobodies and a few important ones drained of information.

Many reasons for doing this, all based on the idea that Gitmo would be a lightening rod for assholes trying to undermine the WoT.

Prisoners of importance would be kept overseas, out of the hands of US judges and lawyers, where they could be persuaded to cooperate by foreigners not under restrictive laws. If they died, it was an accident, not subject to lawsuits. CIA agents would just wait outside until the prisoner wanted to talk, so they would not even "observe" torture.

By paying attention to Gitmo, other, secret prisons would be ignored. Early on, somebody in the CIA let slip that one of these was nicknamed "The Hotel California".

This changes the context of those song lyrics in really gruesome ways.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2008-01-14 12:26  

#3  since we are still capturing these enemy combattants wahere does the world suggest we keep them. Everyone wants the place closed but i have not heard one idea of what too do with these so called ppl . Well here is my idea. close it, say you are moving the remaining ppl there too another location across the atlantic and throw their asses out of the plane on the way.
Posted by: sinse   2008-01-14 11:36  

#2  I suspect that Gitmo will be closed very quickly when the time comes, and any remaining lawfare suits will be called "moot". If the prisoners, guards, and administration of Gitmo are quietly shifted out, then the camp "re-missioned" for something else, it will be completely cleaned and probably used as a storage depot.

By doing this, the precedent for Gitmo will have been made, *and* the prisoners sent out of the US and out of the clutches of the lawyers and liberal judges, *and* Gitmo won't even remain as a photo op of a "US prison camp", to probably be compared with a Nazi concentration camp.

It will just be easy to forget.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2008-01-14 10:38  

#1  ...he was not aware it was even being considered because of the complex legal issues involved.

Which is exactly why it was set up there in the first place. The unrelenting lawfare conducted against the US, under the guise of 'civil rights' for enemy combatants [for which existing international law, the Geneva Convention specifically rejects as illegal combatants], shows that this was an important preemptive act at the start of the WoT.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2008-01-14 09:03  

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