Feds Allow Guantanamo Closing Possibility

[dissent1977]

WASHINGTON - The White House on Wednesday left open the possibility that the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could be shut down following mounting criticism from former President Carter and others.

When asked if President Bush would close the detention center, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan responded, "We're always looking at all alternatives when it comes to dealing with these detainees."

The Pentagon disclosed last week that U.S. guards or interrogators at Guantanamo kicked, stepped on and splashed urine on the Quran. That followed an earlier report in Newsweek, later retracted, that U.S. investigators had confirmed that a guard had deliberately flushed a prisoner's Quran in a toilet. The White House blamed the report for violent protests in Muslim nations.

The prison holds about 540 detainees. Some have been there more than three years without being charged with any crime. Most were captured on the battlefields of Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002 and were sent to Guantanamo Bay in hope of extracting useful intelligence about the al-Qaida terrorist network.

More: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050608/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_guantanamo

[acmavm]

1. Hell, no probo. They'll just transfer these people to a nice little

facility in Uzbekistan, Egypt, or Pakistan where little problems like people whining about torture won't be an issue.

[dissent1977]

3. Hell, maybe they could just move Guantanamo here

After all they were detaining people here in the US without charging them or giving them access to a lawyer after 9/11. Watch the film Unconstitutional, and it becomes very clear the Bush Administration does not care about the rights of prisoners no matter where they are being held.

[halobeam]

19. They'll have lots of empty bases pretty soon

here, that is.

[ooglymoogly]

20. oh i know...why not just make the whole world gwantanamo

isn't that what this sob is after. the drug war has given the feds the power to subjugate an entire people, who have docile rolled over....why not spread the madness...its so easy? 1st massive propaganda by state controlled media...then change all the laws in the middle of the night, pack the courts and presto you have your worldwide guantanamo. hitler had the same idea and almost pulled it off.

[meganmonkey]

2. Just like withdrawing from Iraq is always a 'possibility'

We'll do it as soon as it is feasible....

:banghead:

[Supersedeas]

4. when the Christian Jimmy Carter speaks, FEDS LISTEN

[dissent1977]

7. He is not a Christian, he doesn't worship Shrub

Don't you know that in order to be a Christian nowdays you have to worship at the feet of George Bush. :sarcasm:

[nashville_brook]

10. wish he'd say something about the election [sic]

actually, i think he did -- it was too early and no one paid attention.

[Jack Rabbit]

5. What's the catch? There's got to be one.

When asked if President Bush would close the detention center, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan responded, "We're always looking at all alternatives when it comes to dealing with these detainees."

Alternatives like Abu Ghraib and Bagram, perhaps?

[dissent1977]

9. They will close Guantanamo...

And open up a new secret prison, that Amnesty International and the Red Cross are not allowed to know about. But don't worry they will assure us that all the prisoners are being treated humanely :eyes:

[Zan_of_Texas]

11. It's got a bad reputation now.

They'll close it like they "closed" the School of the Americas.

Do the same thing, but call it something else, with so many initials no one can remember them.

I'm no lawyer, but someone said that one of the rulings against the administration meant that Gitmo wasn't as useful anyway, anymore.

That they were thinking of moving the operation out. Perhaps to Iraq. Probably fewer American inspectors would go there, anyway.

Bear in mind that:

1. Those people are being held illegally, under a made-up status of "enemy combatant." Some, for three years.

2. Some were tortured.

3. Some have testified they were sold into imprisonment by happenstance -- for roughly a $4000 cash bounty.

See this article for documentation of #3.

Gitmo Detainees Say Muslims Were Sold

By Michelle Faul
The Associated Press
Tuesday 31 May 2005
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/060105Z.shtml
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/31/AR2005053100754_pf.html

San Juan, Puerto Rico -- They fed them well. The Pakistani tribesmen slaughtered a sheep in honor of their guests, Arabs and Chinese Muslims famished from fleeing U.S. bombing in the Afghan mountains. But their hosts had ulterior motives: to sell them to the Americans, said the men who are now prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

Bounties ranged from $3,000 to $25,000, the detainees testified during military tribunals, according to transcripts the U.S. government gave The Associated Press to comply with a Freedom of Information lawsuit.

A former CIA intelligence officer who helped lead the search for Osama bin Laden told AP the accounts sounded legitimate because U.S. allies regularly got money to help catch Taliban and al-Qaida fighters. Gary Schroen said he took a suitcase of $3 million in cash into Afghanistan himself to help supply and win over warlords to fight for U.S. Special Forces.

SNIP

"It's obvious. They knew Americans were looking for Arabs, so they captured Arabs and sold them _ just like someone catches a fish and sells it," he said. The detainee said he was seized by "mafia" operatives somewhere in Europe and sold to Americans because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time _ an Arab in a foreign country.

MORE

[PsyOpsRunsOurCountry]

18. Close it just for the 2006 s-election season. "See? All gone."...right.n/t

[Beetwasher]

6. Yeah, They'll Close Gitmo Just Like They Razed Abu Ghraib

Remember? They promised to get rid of that Gulag too.

[wicket]

8. I had forgotten about that

Thanks for the reminder.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

12. Bush opens door to possible closing of Guantanamo

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&u=/nm/20050608/ts_nm/security_guantanamo_dc_1

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
President Bush left the door open to an eventual closing of the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay on Wednesday amid mounting complaints and calls for it to be shut down, including a broadside from former president and human rights champion Jimmy Carter.

"We're exploring all alternatives as to how best to do the main objective, which is to protect America. What we don't want to do is let somebody out that comes back and harms us," Bush said in an interview with Fox News Channel when asked whether it should be shut down.

Calls for closure of the prison camp for foreign terrorism suspects at Guatanamo Bay, Cuba have risen over the past few days after Amnesty International set off a furor last month by calling it a "gulag" and comparing it to the brutal Soviet system of forced labor camps in which millions died.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record) of California, the Democratic leader of the House of Representatives, added her voice to the criticism on Wednesday by supporting those calling for the closure of the detention camp, including Carter and Sen. Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record), the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "I think that we need a fresh start, ... a clean slate for America in the Muslim world," Pelosi told reporters.

[paineinthearse]

13. Headline writers, get it right!

The issue under consideration is the possible closing of Guantanamo detention center. The Navy would never quit the entire base.

[shraby]

14. My question is what will he do

with the prisoners there?

[rexcat]

15. So they close Gitmo, what then...

They move the "detainees" to another facility that no one outside the military or the administration knows about and the torture continues. Big deal!

[Moderator]

27. kick

[Voltaire99]

16. Better idea: hand it over to Cuba, and make it a museum

Future students of "the greatest nation in history" can make pilgrimages to see just how greatness is achieved--one torture victim at a time.

[Robeson]

17. Yep, the Germans tried to close their concentration camps down too...

...before the allies could get to them to see what was going on.

Since its under a microscope, I have no doubt they want to dismantle it.

[truthisfreedom]

22. of course. they want camps with no names. only numbers. remember when

it was called camp x-ray, but they dropped that name due to the negative attention it was getting?

[Gelliebeans]

21. They might have to close

GITMO when and if the ACLU lawsuits over the remaining pictures of Abu Graib prison are released by the end of June. In a post above these prisoners will just disappear from radar.

The admin will just play up the fact that they closed GITMO so move along folks nothing more to see :eyes:

Mark my word * will try to come off as some kind of a hero by closing down GITMO the reason will be along the lines of fairness or some other bush lie.

I guess what outrages me is that we all know what criminals(BFEE)they are and we know what they will attempt to do and the media plays along like muzak in the background :grr:

[joanski0]

23. Am I the only one who watched and

heard our Senators vote for $70 million to build a permanent prison at Gitmo. It was an amendment to the $87 billion supplement for the Iraq "war" that was recently passed. I heard Senator Byrd arguing against the amendment, but it passed anyway. I couldn't believe that the Dems were voting for it.

So Scott McClellan can say whatever he wants, the prison will be built while no one is watching.

[Disturbed]

24. Diego Garcia.

Gitmo has caused too much bad press.

[stmad]

25. Guantanamo poll

Please feel free to visit www.newsgazette.com and participate in their poll. Today's question:


"Former President Jimmy Carter has called for the United States to close the terrorist prison at Guantanamo Bay to show a committment to human rights. Do you agree with Carter?"

[goddess40]

26. What good will that do?

The problem that they approve of torture and holding people for no legitimate reason are still there. What good would it do to move it from one place to another.
Oh right, the American sheeple would think the administration did a noble thing and forget about it until it was pointed out that they were doing the same crap somewhere else.
The world won't forget or forgive so easily, they need us to admit and apologize for our transgressions - which will never happen under the republicans.