In your opinion why was "Gitmo" created?

[Bandit]

Was it because the Bush* Cabal felt our penal system in America was incapable of holding prisoners adequately, or that our Legal system was inadequate in trying foreign criminals, or was it to evade American Laws and treat people with complete disregard as human beings and to deny them the same treatment we feel people in America should receive. IYO was there any other Motive other than to deny basic human rights?

[zanne]

1. I vote for #3. nt

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

2. Evade U.S. laws.

[mdmc]

3. it was the easiest way forward

err on the side of caution...

[havocmom]

4. Gitmo the navel base or Gitmo the center for illegal torture?

The difference is the answer

[billyoc]

5. A scary hole for dissenters to disappear into is very useful to the tyrant.

[Double T]

6. So bushes torture chamber could be off shored.

[stillcool]

7. No other motive..

except to be able to do overtly, that which we had always done covertly.

[Solly Mack]

8. to expand the "unitary executive" and to break federal and international law

(torture, etc.) under the cover of distance and seclusion.

It could also be called an experiment, of sorts.

How much perversion of the law are Americans willing to accept? (a fucking lot) How to apply this in others areas?

[MADem]

9. To get around US constitutional law, of course.

Right to be confronted by accusers, right to a speedy trial, right to counsel, blah, blah, blah.

You know, all that quaint shit that kids used to learn in a class once called "civics" that schools don't seem to teach anymore.

Now, we've got kids with high school diplomas who actually think the president is the equivalent to a king of olden times, that he can order executions and change laws with the wave of a hand. An' Bush, setting that example that he did, 'hepped'...

[CJCRANE]

10. A sideshow for the Republican base n/t

[mix]

11. a virtual concentration camp

It was real of course for those caught in it, but Gitmo also had a symbolic role to deter "terrorists" as a place of torture...the philosophy behind it harkens back to the Enlightenment monarchies of the 18th century when cruelty was rationalized and made public to shape behavior and project royal power.

Instead of deterrence, however, Gitmo became a machine of perpetual violence.

Truly one of the darkest chapters in our history.

[CJCRANE]

13. ...and also to give

the appearance that there were lots of "terrorists" out there and that Bushco were doing their job and capturing them.

[lunatica]

12. It was one step of many in their PNAC agenda

Their entire motive can be boiled down to one thing. Power. Actually it's more like Super Power. People like Cheney and Rumsfeld have been working for generations to consolidate American super power in the world. They started seeing their opportunities when the Soviet Union collapsed and left the US the lone super power in the world. When their convenient 'Pearl Harbor' happened they already had their plan ready to go. They had the right people in the right places and they already had control of the media and the newspapers.

Guantanamo was a blatant message to the world that the US was no longer a Nation of Laws and that it was a good idea to be very afraid. Bush spoke of the US being the giant that had awakened after the 9/11. It was code language for being the only remaining bully who will not allow other bullies to ever again stand up to it.

This was all in PNAC

[conscious evolution]

14. To scare US citizens

They could haver done gitmo in complete secrecy but they needed a subtle way of telling Americans that our Constitution is no longer valid.

[mix]

15. we were all "terrorists" then

that is if you were on the left, the government and the media conflated American citizens exercising their constitutional rights to oppose war with people setting off IEDs and suicide bombs...Gitmo was indeed meant to scare us.

[G_j]

16. to evade American Laws, International Law and human rights nt

[lonestarnot]

17. For the same reason Hanoi Hilton was created.

[ladjf]

18. Intimidation. nt

[uppityperson]

19. to evade American Laws and treat people with complete disregard as human beings and to deny

"to evade American Laws and treat people with complete disregard as human beings and to deny them the same treatment we feel people in America should receive"