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| President Obama And The Real Shame of Guantanamo |
| 2009-04-22 |
| President Barack Obama has in the last few days, accelerated a process of dismantling the American security apparatus designed to protect American citizens at home and abroad. The administration’s disclosure of the techniques used to gather critical intelligence in order to stop terrorist attacks has been made to the world, our enemies and the terrorists. Dismantling of Guantanamo has begun. The president has condemned the entire security process that was put into place after 9/11 as being “not in accord with the principles of our nation.” Have we forgotten already? Has the President forgotten? What was the historical basis for Guantanamo and the interrogation techniques used there? On Aug. 6, 2008, a military jury in Guantanamo convicted Osama bin Laden’s driver of supporting terrorism but acquitted him on charges of conspiring with al-Qaida to wage murderous attacks in the first U.S. war crimes trial since World War II. The American Civil Liberties Union called the tribunal at Guantanamo … “a betrayal of American values from start to finish and a monumental debacle of American justice.” Human rights groups and civil liberties groups condemned the process. The New York Times condemned not only the process but the imprisonment of the terrorist suspects as enemy combatants. In his campaign, candidate Obama used similar language. In the face of an unbroken history of attacks on U.S. diplomatic, military and civilian personnel marking the years prior to 9/11, Guantanamo was established as an intelligence gathering detention facility. What triggered that decision? Seventeen American citizens were killed by a truck bomb attack on the U.S. embassy in Beirut, Lebanon in 1983. Individuals identified as members of Hezbollah al-Hejaz exploded a fuel truck adjacent to an eight story building (Khobar Towers) on June 25, 1996. The building housed United States Air Force personnel from the 440th Wing), a deployed rescue squadron. In all, 19 U.S. servicemen were killed and 372 were wounded in that attack. The first World Trade Center bombing occurred Feb. 26, 1993, when a car bomb was detonated below Tower One of the World Trade Center in New York City killing six people and injuring 1,042. The attack was planned by a group of conspirators including Ramzi Yousef, Mahmud Abouhalima, Mohammad Salameh, Nidal Ayyad, Abdul Rahman Yasin and Ahmad Ajaj. They received financing from Khaled Sheikh Mohammed of al-Qaida. Marine Corps Lt. Colonel William Huggins was kidnapped and murdered by Hezbollah while serving with a U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon in 1988. United States diplomats George Moore and Cleo Noel were murdered by Palestinian terrorists in the Saudi Embassy in Khartoum on March 1, 1973. Richard Welch, CIA station chief in Athens, was assassinated by the November Group in 1975. Rodger Davies, U.S. ambassador to Cyprus, was assassinated in Nicosia in1974. Adolph Dubs, U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan was kidnapped and killed by Islamic terrorists in 1979. Francis E. Meloy Jr., U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon was assassinated in 1978. William Buckley, CIA station chief in Beirut, Lebanon was kidnapped and murdered by the Islamic Jihad in 1984. Capt. William Nordeen, defense attaché in Athens, was gunned down in cold blood in1988. Navy Capt. George Santos was assassinated by the November terrorist group in Greece in 1983. American Consulate employees Gary Durell and Jacqueline Van Landingham were gunned down in Karachi, Pakistan in 1995. Twelve Americans were killed in the US embassy bombing in Nairobi, Kenya in 1988. The attack responsibility was claimed by al-Qaida. The USS Cole suffered a suicide bombing attack against it on Oct. 12, 2000 while it was harbored in the Yemeni port of Aden. Seventeen sailors were killed and 39 others were injured in the blast. The attack was organized and directed by Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terrorist organization and carried out by suicide bombers Ibrahim al-Thawr and Abdullah al-Misawa. On Sept. 11, 2001, a series of coordinated suicide attacks by al-Qaida hit the United States. Terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners. The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone on board and many others working in the building, causing both buildings to collapse within two hours, destroying at least two nearby buildings and damaging others. The hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon. The fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville in rural Somerset County, after passengers and members of the flight crew on the fourth aircraft attempted to retake control of their plane, which was said to have been heading for The White House. There were no known survivors from any of the flights. More than 2,900 people died in the attacks. Another 24 were missing and presumed dead. The U.S. government responded to these repeated acts of murder with a new vigor and determination. We declared a War on Terrorism and launched an invasion of Afghanistan to depose the Taliban, who had harbored al-Qaida terrorists. Many other nations also strengthened their anti-terrorism legislation and expanded law enforcement powers. The NATO council declared that the attacks on the United States were considered an attack on all NATO nations and, as such, satisfied Article 5 of the NATO charter. Within the United States, Congress passed and President Bush signed the Homeland Security Act of 2002, creating the Department of Homeland Security, representing the largest restructuring of the U.S. government in contemporary history. Congress also passed the Patriot Act, stating it would help detect and prosecute terrorism and other crimes. Numerous countries, including the United Kingdom, India, Australia, France, Germany, Indonesia, China, Canada, Russia, Pakistan, Jordan, Mauritius, Uganda and Zimbabwe introduced “anti-terrorism” legislation and froze the bank accounts of businesses and individuals they suspected of having al-Qaida ties. Thousand of Americans have been killed in this declared war against us. NATO declared it an attack on all nations. The President didn’t act alone. Congress passed the Homeland Security Act and the Patriot Act. The United Kingdom, India, Australia, France, Germany, Indonesia, China, Canada, Russia, Pakistan, Jordan, Mauritius, Uganda and Zimbabwe introduced “anti-terrorism” legislation. The United States responded to the attacks by declaring a War on Terrorism. Guantanamo was set-up to detain, interrogate and process known terrorists and enemy combatants. The Department of Defense and the CIA, acting with presidential and congressional authority under the Homeland Security and Patriot Acts directed and authorized interrogation techniques which had a historical basis in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Since the passage of these laws and the implementation of authorized interrogation techniques, dozens of terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, diplomats and civilians have been thwarted. There have been no successful attacks in the U.S. or on U.S. personnel serving overseas. President Obama is now dismantling this security system and in the process, apologizing to the world for the measures the U.S. implemented to protect itself. His characterization of the process sounds as if it was written by the terrorists themselves. Additionally, Congress continues to threaten criminal prosecution of Justice department lawyers and CIA personnel who participated in this successful program to protect the U.S. During the entire period of years that this dis-honor roll of murder and horror took place, during this entire chain of evil events, during all the funerals and grieving by Americans for Americans … during this on-going declared war against America, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and The New York Times remained silent. There were no cries of shame directed at the terrorists for killing babies , women and children. There were no calls for justice against these murderers and assassins. There was no cry that these behaviors were a “betrayal of human values.” Nothing. A shameful silence enveloped this organization with the oxymoronic name, “American Civil Liberties Union.” But they did rush to the defense of Muslims in the U.S. being investigated by the FBI and they now scream of the “inhumanity of waterboarding” They have sued to disclose the internal policy memos of the U.S. intelligence efforts. The real shame of Guantanamo is that President Obama has taken a position condemning and apologizing to the world for our self-protective efforts. Will we now be safer? Will the terrorists be moved by the president’s “mea culpas” and cease all murderous operations against us? If that isn’t the audacity of hope, what is? |
| Posted by:Beavis |
| #8 there is no muck to dive into. There are no helpless prisoners being waterboarded, 90% of them didn't just end up in custody while herding their goats. If mistakes happen we are still the only country on earth that does its best to fix them. American idealism & "honor" is given to those who are captured in uniform. Barbarians committing acts of savagery out of uniform get no such luck. Waterboard the shit out of them. It doesn't diminish us one bit to do it, it would make us fucking idiots no to. |
| Posted by: Broadhead6 2009-04-22 18:25 |
| #7 How can anyone believe in our 'ideals' when we are so quick to throw them aside? You have ideals when you can afford them. At the time of the 9/11 attacks, American intelligence capabilites were stunted. Perhaps a better term would be 'damaged'. That was acceptable, given the then-conditions and attitudes of the population and the government. I'll stop here. I was going to go into more detail, but I sense given your posts, that it'd be like explaining pastel hues to a blind man. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2009-04-22 18:25 |
| #6 when the ineveitable attack occurs, and it will, I hope it is on a blue city. Consequences, and all that. Not trying to be a bastard (for once), just hoping for a learning moment that your vote matters, policies count, national will to defend is important, and your f*cking feelings - as much as they matter in this Obama/Oprah age - can get hurt too |
| Posted by: Frank G 2009-04-22 18:15 |
| #5 49 Pan I didn't base any of my statements on scale.. so I'm not sure where my facts need to be straightened out. You'd have to be pretty dumb to think our anti terror efforts match the numbers produced by WWII Japan. Please don't call me dumb. It lowers me and you. Your other argument was based on combat. Combat is brutal, it's a fight to the death. There is no changing that. Torturing a helpless prisoner is something else entirely. (apples / oranges.. etc) James, Thanks for your response. It's a fair argument. My crude paraphrase of it would be "Muck, because the risk is too high" (I'd rather not quibble on their ability to access nukes, so I'll just run with it as is) I wonder tho, if the most powerful nation in the world, the great experiment, the leader of the free world, the best of the best.. can't afford or no longer believes in American idealism. How can anyone believe in our 'ideals' when we are so quick to throw them aside? perhaps we should re-label ourselves as 'the experiment', 'leader of the not-as-free-as-our-founding-fathers', and 'best of the least worst' |
| Posted by: Dcreeper 2009-04-22 17:39 |
| #4 If you knew that a terrorist group had a nuclear weapon and were deploying it in the US AND you apprehended one of the group, what would you be willing to do to that person to prevent the nuclear weapon from being detonated? Since every terrorist group is actively trying to get a nuke and deliver a nuke to our back yard, every terrorist we question is a potential "ticking bomb" scenario. Obama is a simple minded and mean spirited moron who will get a lot of people killed. I wonder how the MSM and all of the Dems in congress will spin this if a terrorist attack occurs that could have been thwarted by "aggressive interrogation"? |
| Posted by: James Carville 2009-04-22 17:00 |
| #3 "Muck or Honor"??? Life is not that black and white. We kill in wartime, we burn people alive with sticky stuff that creates great pain and suffering, we blast white phos onto targets creating severe pain, suffering and death. Nearby women and children get caught up in it too. This is real life, no nice, not pretty, but very real and not a crime. The "muck" your talking about is whosale torture that the Japanese soldiers performed unchecked and on a daily basis to most every captive in their control. What we are talking about here with waterboarding is select individuals questioned in a way that is only frightening and in no way compares to the mass torture, maiming, and executions the Japanese did to their captives for the sake of inflicting pain for pains sake only. This holier than though crap calling every technique torture is just plain amateur hour, study it, learn and then watch how our local police question Americans. If our country allowed troops to torture captives as standard protocol then our nation deserves to fall. But this was not the case. It was very selective to a relative few that held actionable information. It was monitored at the highest levels and authorized on a case by case basis by the president. Hell, a US State judge can sentence someone to death by electrocution, another torture by definition, and our President is not even informed. Please get the facts straight here on this before you go lumping isolated events with the true war crimes and real human suffering. Otherwise your just another stooge for a political game. |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2009-04-22 15:58 |
| #2 All of this make me feel conflicted. part of me says 'We're fighting animals! We gotta do what we gotta do to protect Americans' the other part of me says 'We accused and convicted Japanese of warcrimes.. one of the damning accusations was waterboarding.' I guess the conflict merges with an old saying 'Honor is for those who can afford it.' this one also hits me pretty hard “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety” - Benj Franklin So.. Can we afford to uphold American values with all of the horror our enemies will inflict. Or do we dive into the muck? What do you guys think? Muck or Honor? What America do you want to live in? If you choose Muck, is the American dream dead? |
| Posted by: Dcreeper 2009-04-22 12:49 |
| #1 I think the Dems are playing with fire. This was done solely to embarrass GWB. I shudder to think what the backlash will be if, and I hope not, we ever have another 9/11 type terrorist attack on the US. While I hope it never occurs again, these actions almost guarantee that we will be attacked again in a horrific manner. I wonder what kind of grand rhetoric this moron will have to explain away these actions after one of our cities either disappears or is rendered uninhabitable for centuries? The CIA might as well bring all of their field agents home and let them play crossword puzzles if this action is indicative of how the Obama administration wants to protect us from the Islamofascist nut jobs that are out there plotting every day to destroy us. Thank you NYT, Boston Globe and LATimes for all of your sabotage and leftist twisted journalism. You were so invested in trying to make GWB look bad that you forgot our national security should be more important than cheap partisan politics. |
| Posted by: James Carville 2009-04-22 10:45 |