Fearmongers and Cowards Win As Obama Withdraws Plan to Bring Gitmo Detainees Here
By Susie Madrak Friday Jun 12, 2009 11:00amAnd let's give credit to the Dems who put the "bi" in bipartisan on this issue! Yes, let's hear it for those Dems who live and die by the prevailing winds of public opinion - who would never dream of actually educating the voters instead of knuckling under to their uninformed emotions. You go, Weathervane Dems! Woo hoo!
The Obama administration has all but abandoned plans to allow Guantanamo Bay detainees who have been cleared for release to live in the United States, administration officials said yesterday, a decision that reflects bipartisan congressional opposition to admitting such prisoners but complicates efforts to persuade European allies to accept them.
Four Uighur detainees, Chinese Muslims who were incarcerated at the U.S. military prison in Cuba for more than seven years, arrived early yesterday in Bermuda, where they will become foreign guest workers. An administration official said the United States is engaged in negotiations with other countries, including Palau, an island nation in the western Pacific, to find places for the remaining 13 Uighurs held at Guantanamo.
The Uighurs, who were ordered released by a federal judge last year, never counted America as an enemy, according to the men's lawyers and human rights groups, giving the administration grounds to argue that they should live in the United States. Picked up in Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2002, the Uighurs were later cleared of the "enemy combatant" label but remained in minimum-security confinement at Guantanamo.
Attempting to settle non-Uighur detainees in the United States would generate even greater congressional opposition, and the administration has decided not to pursue it broadly, an administration official said yesterday, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. But he said there may yet be "a few" candidates for settlement in the United States among the dozens of Guantanamo detainees who have been cleared for release.
Congressional Democrats yesterday reached agreement on a war-funding bill that would allow detainees to be sent to the United States for trial. The draft bill included no provision for prolonged detention without trial, a step that President Obama has said will be necessary to incarcerate detainees who are too dangerous to release but who cannot be prosecuted.
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America going through withdrawal pain?
Uh...oh...sounds like it's time for a trip to the free clinic.
Stand firm Obama!!!
WTF?!?!
This is a bunch of goddamn bullshit!
this President may be the last person to win a "free" election in this country.
He may have won, but the powers that be will not cede power.
Obviously, this whole democracy thing introduces too many uncontrolled variables for the corporatists. Something is gonna have to be done about that.
Democrats are just used to falling to their knees to the Republicans- The Republicans are OUT OF POWER, yet can still dictate Obama's policies.
Disgusting-and cowardly.
Did those guys even ask to be released in the US or is it just "giving the administration grounds to argue that they should live in the United States."? Are we wetting ourselves over an actual request or theoretical "grounds"?
I should think most of our guests will want to get as far the f*ck away from 'Merica as they can.
want to get as far the f*ck away from 'Merica as they can but CAN'T.
Where would you go anyway? The whole planets screwed up beyond hope.
ps, don't forget your coat!
aaaaaaaaaa
We have the best prison system in the world. Some in Colorado have even offered to maintain these war-prisoners. After 7 long years, so much war, greater dangers because we haven't done anything makes it prime time for some quick trials.
Obama backing down from his original promise is not right.
Doo-Dah
We're housing terrorists prisoners awaiting trial as we speak...right here in downtown Manhattan.
Gosh...and the city is still in one piece and operating normally.
I have been giving him the 'benefit of the Doubt.' But I am running out of charity. I don't see an action in other areas to give me hope here, all the gay issues, and the undeclared wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
He'll bend to the scardy cat fuckwits who have NO FUCKING BASIS for their fears, yet those of us who cry out for justice for the wrongfully imprisoned, or the injured GLBT community who are treated like shit by a govt that is charged with their protection, is wearing quite thin at my house. And cries for 'single payer health care' are falling on deaf ears.
If LBJ did not have the will, the courage of his convictions over civil rights, the Obamas would quite possibly be facing separate water fountains and toilets in parts of the country.
We didn't get civil rights on a whim. There was a great deal of Presidential will behind it.
..I too am running out of patience with Pres. Obama. Who the F runs this country anyway? I'm beginning to believe the conspiracy-theorists are right about Government being run by Corporate Powers.
That is the last thing I want to buy into.
I know that concept scares and depresses us, but it's true. This country was hijacked by corporate cabals decades ago. If you need any more proof, start to catalog in your mind all of the "policy" decisions our government has made. Funny, how they mostly revolve around corporate interest and what's best for them. Almost every sector of our society has been sold out and made into a for-profit venture: Healthcare, prisons, finance regulation, defense, education, the list goes on. Don't delude yourselves: Obama is alive because he agreed to play ball. He may be able to steer things to the left for the public benefit and enact some reform, but always remember who has the money here. It's not us.
Your instincts are right. But the real 'conspiracy-theorists' are the propagandists for corporate America--heard pretty much 24/7 in the MSM--who manage to sway public opinion by claiming that any idea to the left of Attila the Hun is downright 'socialist.'
You're especially right about the power of the bully pulpit. Obama's wanting to compromise on vital issues, issues of life and death, freedom and slavery, is simply an excuse not to use the power of his position.
Indeed, just yesterday I read that he was threatening all freshmen dems with nonsupport in their next election if they vote against his military budget. Imagine, the one time Obama 'gets tough' and it's against the left-wing faction of his own party!
Getting Obama elected, slickest move the neocons ever made. They can finally nail the democracy coffin shut, with barely a whimper of opposition, since the opposition is still celebrating the victory of a 'liberal' democrat to office.
What was the point?
And shoveling money to those poor fat cats who can only afford a couple dozen houses.
They will NEVER support him, but Pres obama seems to think if he caves in and does what they ask- they'll like him- It just makes him look weak...
California could net US$1 billion from San Quentin sale
Well they can't put them there!
Nothings changed there that's for certain.
..rich, white, successful ONLY. Everybody else can go to hell!
This is another reason why we are losing the moral high ground. And, there's still the small matter of War Crimes. So, they're not going to release photos of abuse, no war crime trials, not gonna' close Guantanamo, we ain't out of Iraq, we ain't out of Afghanistan, our soldiers still dying and being wounded, etc.
We've become a nation of "scaredy-cats" and wimps. Not what I signed up for.
There's always got to be a strategy.
..its called "Rule of Law".
now.
.
but I don't recall anytime the Obama administration said that detainees would be released to live in the U.S.A.
It was, I suppose, a proposal to settle them here. Some have gone to Bermuda and now Palau is being considered. A FEDERAL judge ordered them released so there's no more reason to hold them. If they are not enemy combatants, if they can't go to China, why haven't we brought them here?
I'm not in favor of having someone who should be pissed at the Bush administration, living in the U.S.A after being held at Guantanamo for 7 years.
hide under your bed.
apparently you don't agree but I repeat, you guys are talking about Obama backing down on the issue and I think if you are serious about the topic you might provide a link to where the administration said it would release them in the U.S.A.
...another dealbreaker. The man is far superior than what we had and much better than what could have been...period. I don't agree with all of Obama's moves thus far...and I didn't think I would have when I voted for him. Face it folks, there are pressing needs(stop the treasure/human wasting occupations, health care, the economy/unemployment, etc. If Obama succeeds in these more important issues you folks will be with him...where else do you have to go?
Obama is good at wearing clothing and looking attractive and smiling.
He has no spine.
He is no progressive.
At present he is threatening democrats who don't want to vote for additional spending for the war in Iraq.
What a phony. "Against the war from the beginning", my aunt fanny.
And he is on the fence regarding health care.
He's still kissing Reagan's keister.
He is not on our side.
He is a front man for the same creeps as his predecessor.
there's nothing to discredit that.
1) No real changes on domestic surveillance.
2) No investigations into torture.
3) No Presidential demand for universal healthcare.
4) No real troop withdrawals from Iraq.
5) No closing Gitmo.
That's just off the top of my head.
Rumsfeld et al, keeping DADT, fighting DOMA, no support for single payer.
Didn't Bush use signing statements to run ram-shod over the Democrats? Obama can't do the same?
we're bipartisan now.
BiPartisan = Do it the way the Thugs want.
it means saying thank you...after they shove it up your rectum...dry.
(n/t)
Let's see...
When it was a Republican president with a republican congress and republican senate the dem excuse was that they couldn't do anything because they were outnumbered.
Then after significantly increasing their numbers in 2006 the dems caved on everything because a republican would threaten to fillibuster. And somehow the republicans still passed everything they wanted.
Now the dems still can't pass any legislation because, well, they fucking suck.
:(
Just another lying politician.
Very unfortunate.
*
are we officially a joke yet.
Oh...I forgot...for us to be a joke, people would actually have to understand what we used to be.
No anger in the country = ignorance of our history
America is the beacon of freedom-which is why we torture people..
We are at war so we can be at peace...
society.
Maybe another butthurt repub whining about how just because they're radical extremists it doesn't mean that when one of their members does something stupid they should be held accountable for that.
Or maybe a butthurt Israeli poli whining some more about wanting to expand the settlements and continue building on the land they already stole.
I went to high school with a couple of brothers named "Wiegers." When I first heard about these "Uighurs" last week, I thought, wow....those two guys I went to school with are terrorists?
Mitch McConnell, Cantor, Gingrich, Palin, Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly, Levine, Savage and all the other twisted fruits that comprise the wingnut right.
(Greater Fool Theory)
have a nice weekend all.
cuz we came to play!
Bureaucracy
"step that President Obama has said will be necessary to incarcerate detainees who are too dangerous to release but who cannot be prosecuted."
President (former Constitutional Professor) Obama if they can not be prosecuted then they must be released.
Not Constitutional but if it is the US's fault that they can not go home then they should be provided with a residence somewhere in either Houston or Crawford, close to the one who created them.
Peace
Cui-Bono?
What is it that make republicans such cowards?
Is it the insanity that runs through the party?
republicanism is a mental illness!
The whole thing about bringing or not bringing these guys to the states is baffling to me. What's the big deal here. Do those against it think, our sociopaths aren't as dangerous as these guys. If you do, talk to someone who has a job working for their state or our federal corrections dept. I believe if they did, they'd probably be looking to offshore our homegrown versions. Personally I haven't heard a peep about the subject, unless it was on the television; so I really don't understand where this ground swell of public opinion came from. And if it is legitimate, we should look at ourselves and question how serious we are about solving a real problem.
We're not willing as a nation to house criminals who supposedly want to destroy us, and we're willing to send troops to fight these people overseas so long as it's someone elses kids. Sounds like some of the same traits we read about Rome before it fell.
That's what it is when you boil away the rhetoric and hand waving. I'll cry for future generations but not for anyone over 20 who's happy to let things coast along as is (that's got to be over 90% of Americans).
Make sure they BELIEVE in the real dream of America. What she really stands for.
What the Constitution really is about. (Note to trolls...please no idiot comments about our forefathers being slave owners. The Constitution is a LIVING document. That is why it is special. Activist judges? Thank god. Rule by the people? Thank GOD.)
Maybe the United States doesn't have a chance, but that doesn't mean that the beliefs and goals within the Constitution have to die with her.
I can't believe that blind superstion has these republicani all a'quiver like this. It must also be blind hatered. whatever it is it's nasty, it's childish, and it's not productive.
If religion is behind it then tough beans. If fiscal responsibility is behind it then show us the money Mr. republicani.
the Ram Bam Shish Boom Bam Democrats pretending to be progressives are having a helluva time posting support for Mr. HolyGoodF*ck nowadays on here with so many actually seeing his true colours. Hate to be the one that said I told you so, but I told you so. Alternative better? I don't know, can you see a damn difference people?
for our country. Sometimes things aren't as cut and dry as they seem. At least from a 10,000 foot view. At some point, we have to trust our leaders.
bushcheneygang would have tried anyone one at Gitmo for jaywalking if they might have even possibly been guilty. You've already forgotten the screaming fear of the two cowards as they tried and started a couple of wars for their own profit.
A. Anyone except the guards at Gitmo are totally innocent.
B. Give them $1 million in gold apiece and an apology and a plane ticket to wherever they want to go.
C. Give them an American passport and make them citizens.
D. Or be a politician and continue to disgrace my country you shitheads.
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