Closing Down GITMO

[toasty]

OK, so we now know that Obama has signed an executive order to begin the process of shutting down GITMO.

While watching both CNN and MSNBC this morning, there was a lot of discussion about the ramifications of just letting these people go. Here's the $64,000 question, though -- who said anything about just releasing them? The order actually specifically reads:

(f) Some individuals currently detained at Guantánamo may have committed offenses for which they should be prosecuted. It is in the interests of the United States to review whether and how any such individuals can and should be prosecuted.

GITMO has been a black eye for the US for a while now, and shutting it down is an obvious way of putting that era behind us. It seems to me that the media is focused on the wrong question, though, because I can't think of anyone that thinks that we ought to just open the doors and let everyone out. These people were detained for a reason, and if we have a basis for charging them with something, let's charge them and prosecute them. That should be obvious. I totally fail to understand the controversy here.

[runningman]

Re: Closing Down GITMO

I dont' get it either. You can conquer Iraq in a couple months but you can't close an illegal jail for a year?? Sounds retarded to me

[superdave]

Re: Closing Down GITMO

I dont' get it either. You can conquer Iraq in a couple months but you can't close an illegal jail for a year?? Sounds retarded to me

Apples to oranges. Or simply it's not the same thing.

As for closing Gitmo down, it seems silly to me and more of a symbolic thing. If anyone is guilty of terrorism in Gitmo, they should be held there or somewhere. Doesn't matter to me where.

[Miroslav]

Re: Closing Down GITMO

Guys, I'm no lawyer, but I see quite a legal shitstorm with this. It's not as simple as getting this hundreds of guys on a plane, dropping them off at the county jail, and letting them have their day in court. I've read that it's quite difficult to prosecute these people because, for most of them, there is a very weak body of evidence admissible under existing criminal standards. Most of these guys left are either the worst ones or the ones with the most complicated cases to prove. So under what conventions do you try them (standard US criminal, military tribunals), and how do you make the case so that it sticks? Once you put them into play in the system you can't just stop things from playing out - the whole world is watching, and we can't extend the right to a trial to some and then stop if half way with others after we've already publicly admitted that Guantanamo was illegal. And you can't just shoot them in the head, because the whole world is watching. And you really don't want to end up having to let these guys go so that they can move freely throughout the continental United States.

And furthermore, it seems that these guys are pariahs that no one wants to touch. Their own countries generally refuse to take them back, so you can't just take them there. And no one here in the US wants them; already all the states are running as fast as they can to avoid having to deal with any of them.

This is why these guys were in Guantanamo in the first place; Bush didn't want to weather this shitstorm with his unpopular wars going on. Besides, it was never really his primary goal to prosecute these prisoners; he just wanted to keep them off the battlefield and torture them for valuable information to aid against future terrorist attacks.

And what you really don't want happening is this:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jUF4ASartwWO3JqCBOiisqMJDiNA

[Localizer]

Re: Closing Down GITMO

Apples to oranges. Or simply it's not the same thing.

As for closing Gitmo down, it seems silly to me and more of a symbolic thing. If anyone is guilty of terrorism in Gitmo, they should be held there or somewhere. Doesn't matter to me where.

But therein lies the problem. Enemy Combatant is a vague definition and you are offered no tribunal. Basically, at any time they wanted to snatch anybody, they could, and they could be held without a trial.

[chunky]

Re: Closing Down GITMO

Apples to oranges. Or simply it's not the same thing.

As for closing Gitmo down, it seems silly to me and more of a symbolic thing. If anyone is guilty of terrorism in Gitmo, they should be held there or somewhere. Doesn't matter to me where.

I didn't realise many of these people had been found guilty of terrorism. If you cant prove it I say let them go and compensate them for what they had to go through while they where there.

[DIDI]

Re: Closing Down GITMO

^^^^ Ahh, a voice of reason.

They should be subject to normal law. If there is a very week body of evidence , perhaps they are not guilty .

[Miroslav]

Re: Closing Down GITMO

^^^^ Ahh, a voice of reason.

They should be subject to normal law. If there is a very week body of evidence , perhaps they are not guilty .

Or perhaps they are but the evidence is not there because of the haphazard way in which the previous administration captured these people around the world and processed their cases. And now it is years later and too late to get all of the evidence they should have gotten then.

But I agree that they will probably have to let many of them go free. So now we might well let go the guys who will drop the next skyscrapers in some city in my country and kill another couple thousand people - or maybe worse. And the concern is real...

A former Saudi detainee at the US "war on terror" prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba has been been elevated to the senior ranks of Al-Qaeda in Yemen, a US counter-terrorism official said Friday.

A video circulating on jihadist websites showed Said Ali al-Shihri pledging allegiance as deputy to the commander of Al-Qaeda in Yemen, Abu Baseer al-Wahayshi, according to the SITE Intelligence Group Monitoring Service.

[chunky]

Re: Closing Down GITMO

But I agree that they will probably have to let many of them go free. So now we might well let go the guys who will drop the next skyscrapers in some city in my country and kill another couple thousand people - or maybe worse. And the concern is real...

Unsurprisingly enough we didn't get the evidence on the last 3 skyscrapers either. The Bush administration could of supplied us with plenty of things on 9/11 but they didn't. i wonder why

[Jenks]

Re: Closing Down GITMO

kill them all, close the prison, and let's move on.

[runningman]

Re: Closing Down GITMO

I love it when everyone acts like this is a huge "paper mess." and very easy questions like "what do we do with them?'' You let them go or put them in prisons around the globe. It is very simple but propaganda will have you believe that it is extremely complex.

Canada is already willing to take back its suspected terrorists.

[Miroslav]

Re: Closing Down GITMO

nm...not worth it.

[runningman]

Re: Closing Down GITMO

yep you said..

[Localizer]

Re: Closing Down GITMO

Or perhaps they are but the evidence is not there because of the haphazard way in which the previous administration captured these people around the world and processed their cases. And now it is years later and too late to get all of the evidence they should have gotten then.

But I agree that they will probably have to let many of them go free. So now we might well let go the guys who will drop the next skyscrapers in some city in my country and kill another couple thousand people - or maybe worse. And the concern is real...

I'm actually more convinced that GBay was probably also used to train these individuals. i mean, what better place? It's pretty much a max prison with intelligence officers dispersed here and there. Years later, we'll probably get intel that says this guy too was trained by the CIA.

[Miroslav]

Re: Closing Down GITMO

I'm actually more convinced that GBay was probably also used to train these individuals. i mean, what better place? It's pretty much a max prison with intelligence officers dispersed here and there. Years later, we'll probably get intel that says this guy too was trained by the CIA.

I'm not following... Why would US forces capture people who are supposedly anti-American terrorists in order to train them? For what? To kill us all better?