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Detention Center at Guantanamo Bay

reviewed by abichara

abichara
01/22/2009

Detention Center at Guantanamo Bay 1

Obama today signed an Executive Order officially closing down the Guantanamo Bay prison. It will take a year to shut down operations and the process of detaining and prosecuting the terrorists held will be reviewed.

I think that people are making too much out of this move. While there is some symbolic value in shutting down the operation, that does NOT mean that the government will unilaterally stop using torture to get information out of suspects or detainees. All what this means is that the terrorists will be housed in another facility, either on American soil or abroad. The CIA and other covert agencies operate under different rules that allow for torture as a means to get information in certain situations. And this new Executive Order does not guarantee that we won't outsource the use of torture to other countries like Saudi Arabia or Egypt.

So given this, Obama's big move today rings a little hollow.

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Ridgewalker commented 310 days ago.
Covert operations are what the CIA does. I just can't imagine any President sitting down at his desk to find a Top Secret memorandum stating that a a conspiracy to blow up New York, Chicago and L.A. was thwarted, that active nuclear weapons were found on American soil and all of the conspirators were captured...and his first reaction being, "Yah, but did you have to torture anyone to get that information?" ("And if you did have to torture anyone, then let them go and give them back their stuff.") I also couldn't imagine a sitting President having prior knowledge of something like this and not sending in Jack Bauer if that would be what it took to keep this kind of thing from happening on his watch. Regardless of what Obama said today...

abichara commented 310 days ago.
Agreed...That's why I think that Obama's move today overstates the political reality of the matter.

abichara commented 310 days ago.
Here's an interesting article about the situation with Obama's Executive Order regarding torture, and why it might not necessarily represent much change, from politico.com.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0109/17841.htm l

fitman commented 309 days ago.
This is the kind of rather empty gesture one has learned to expect from liberals.

Still, it's a bit better than having an American Breendonck festering in the spotlight. No?

Wiseguy commented 309 days ago.
I hear the Klein pie was great at Breendonck.

Wait a minute...I'm thinking of the wrong place, they didn't serve food at Breendonck.
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