Human rights activists turn up the heat on Obama regarding Guantanamo Bay

[DaTruth]

Obama blames everyone else and admits he is weak.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/...DsP_story.html

[Cannon Shell]

These people protest Gitmo till they want to move the prisoners to their neck of the woods. Then they protest that. I just find it hard to believe that well meaning people dont throw their money or energy towards more deserving issues.

[Danzig]

i don't know why they're after obama-did they really believe him when he said he'd close it? probably. i called bullshit when he said he was going to shut it down; that his naivete was showing. that once he got in there and found out everything he'd change his tune.
if it's a war, they're enemy combatants. they can be held til the war's over, just like with other wars in the past. it's not pretty-that's why they call it war.

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by Danzig

i don't know why they're after obama-did they really believe him when he said he'd close it? probably. i called bullshit when he said he was going to shut it down; that his naivete was showing. that once he got in there and found out everything he'd change his tune.
if it's a war, they're enemy combatants. they can be held til the war's over, just like with other wars in the past. it's not pretty-that's why they call it war.

Question number 1 after you say you want to shut it down is what are you going to do with them? That question still doesnt have a good answer.

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

Question number 1 after you say you want to shut it down is what are you going to do with them? That question still doesnt have a good answer.

yeah, i don't think he ever thought that through either. but neither did his audience. nor did they consider just what people they were keeping locked up either. wasn't exactly a group of petty criminals.

i guess when people are looking through rose-colored glasses, their hearing and reasoning skills go by the wayside as well.

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by Danzig

yeah, i don't think he ever thought that through either. but neither did his audience. nor did they consider just what people they were keeping locked up either. wasn't exactly a group of petty criminals.

i guess when people are looking through rose-colored glasses, their hearing and reasoning skills go by the wayside as well.

I dont think Obama ever intended to close Guantanamo Bay. It is one of those campaign promises that sounds great for your base but the reality is very few people are going to hold it against you if you break the promise because it doesnt really affect voters in any real manner.

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

I dont think Obama ever intended to close Guantanamo Bay. It is one of those campaign promises that sounds great for your base but the reality is very few people are going to hold it against you if you break the promise because it doesnt really affect voters in any real manner.

he probably didn't. i certainly didn't believe him, and am surprised anyone thought he would. but then, when some believed that he was different and would change things, i didn't believe that either.

[Rileyoriley]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

These people protest Gitmo till they want to move the prisoners to their neck of the woods. Then they protest that. I just find it hard to believe that well meaning people dont throw their money or energy towards more deserving issues.

Amherst, Massachusetts-they voted to adopt 2 Gitmo detainees after Obama was elected. And they wonder why they are a joke even in Massachusetts.

[Riot]

Sad to think we can't find place in our state prisons for 171 or less prisoners. Illinois totally refused to use their empty prison for them, even though it would have created multiple jobs. You'd think these prisoners were magic bogeymen with supernatural powers, the way Americans fear them so desperately.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administ...ll-unfulfilled

Obama campaigned on closing the facility in Cuba and, in one of his first actions as president, issued an executive order calling for it to be dismantled within one year.

In 2009, when the administration moved toward closing the prison, Obama faced fierce opposition from Republicans over where the detainees would be held.

He also had to deal with resistance in his own party, and Senate Democrats blocked $80 million that would have funded closing Guantánamo during Obama’s first year.

House Armed Services Committee ranking member Adam Smith (D-Wash.), who supports closing Guantánamo, said Congress is to blame for putting measures in place that make it nearly impossible to transfer detainees.

“Between restrictions on transferring detainees to the U.S. and restrictions on transferring them to foreign countries, you’ve got a situation in Guantánamo where once you put people there, there’s nowhere you can send them,” Smith said Wednesday in an appearance on National Public Radio. “I think that’s a horrible policy.”

In all, nearly 800 prisoners have been held in Guantánamo, and currently 171 remain. Of those, 89 have been cleared for transfer by an Obama administration task force.

But actually transferring the prisoners can be a difficult matter.

Some detainees have nowhere to go because Obama stopped transfers to Yemen in 2010. The defense authorization bill that Obama signed on New Year’s Eve bars transferring Guantánamo detainees to the U.S. for one year and places restrictions on transfers to foreign countries.

Human-rights advocates were upset that Obama signed the defense bill, not only because of the Guantánamo restrictions but also because the law expands the scope of military detention.

Obama had threatened to veto the bill over the military detention provisions, but ultimately signed it after some changes were made that gave the administration more flexibility to use civilian courts and law enforcement for terror suspects.

“It’s a big blow,” Azmy said of the law. “What they effectively do is codify and ratify military detention as a presumption of U.S. law. And that’s a Rubicon that branches of government hadn’t really crossed before.”