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Top US Military Officer Pushes Guantanamo Closing
WASHINGTON - The top U.S. military officer on Sunday pushed for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison despite rising resistance in Congress, saying it serves as a "recruiting symbol" for America's enemies.
The US military must "dramatically" stem a three-year slide in the security situation in Afghanistan over the next year and a half to make room for civilian efforts to stabilize the country, US Admiral Michael Mullen, pictured on May 21, 2009, said Sunday. (AFP/Getty Images/Brendan Smialowski) Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, rallied behind President Barack Obama's move to close the detention facility at the U.S. naval base in Cuba, which is operated by the U.S. military.
"Well, the concern I've had about Guantanamo in these wars is it has been a symbol -- and one which has been a recruiting symbol for those extremists and jihadists who would fight us. ... That's at the heart of the concern for Guantanamo's continued existence," Mullen said on ABC's "This Week."
"Well, I've advocated for a long time now that it needs to be closed. President Obama made a decision very early after his inauguration to do that by next January. And we're all working very hard to meet that deadline," Mullen added.
Obama on Thursday laid out his case for closing the prison, saying he was trying to clean up a legal "mess" he inherited from former President George W. Bush, who opened the facility in 2002. Many critics, including some close U.S. allies, have condemned prison, with saying torture has been used there.
In a vigorous defense of the Guantanamo prison that same day, former Vice President Dick Cheney assailed what he called "this recruitment tool theory" that U.S. treatment of foreign terrorism suspects held there has helped al Qaeda and other U.S. enemies attract new members.
"It's another version of that same old refrain from the left, 'We brought it on ourselves,'" Cheney said on Thursday.
"PALPABLY FALSE"
Republican Senator Jon Kyl, speaking on "Fox News Sunday," embraced Cheney's view. "I think it's palpably false to suggest that the existence of Gitmo created terrorists. And yet the president gets away with (saying) that," Kyl said.
The U.S. Senate last week dealt a blow to Obama's plans to close the prison, denying him $80 million he sought to shut it until he presents a detailed plan on what to do with the 240 foreign terrorism suspects held there.
Obama has run into resistance, not only from Republicans but from his fellow Democrats who control Congress.
"Whether it's closed or not, we have to have a plan in place that outlines how we deal with the people who are incarcerated there," Democratic Senator Ben Nelson said on "Fox News Sunday."
Obama said Guantanamo prisoners will be tried in U.S. courts and held in super-maximum-security U.S. prisons while others could be tried by in special military trials, but his speech on the issue left many questions unanswered.
"I don't know why it is better to have somebody in a so-called super max facility in, say, Colorado, than it is to keep them in Guantanamo, a state of the art facility that we built not too long ago for the explicit purpose of holding these people. There's nothing wrong with the prison at Gitmo," Kyl said.
(Editing by Sandra Maler)
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14 Comments so far
Show AllThey should be sent to and held in Washington D.C.
Gitmo is not a prison!
It's a symbol for lawlessness and torture.
The Mayor and Towns people of Florence Colorado, where the SuperMax is located have no objections to all the terrorists being housed there , in fact many are and are slated to be housed in Florence Colorado.
The housing of Gitmo Detainees and the Torture Photos are both false controversies to create diversion from the on going slaughter and torture and torture non prosecution.
Congress, serves as a "recruiting symbol" for America's enemies.
But what do the ZioNazis care for America's well-being as long as
their senators and congress creatures keep sending tribute?
Obama vows to keep US military domonitation over the whole world so ---
I think he will surely keep Guantanamo in the hostage and torture business.
This guy is telling the truth. Therefore his career prospects will be limited. The idea that the US prison system is too weak to hold suspected terrorists is just ridiculous.
Joe
Yeah, but will the US prison system hold Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice?
Torture is evil and inhumane. Enemies will retaliate. Does this make sense?
Keeping prisoners for extended periods, without a trial is unconstitutonal. What the hell are we coming to?
Prisoners are still human beings and their crimes should be punished, when found guilty, UNDER THE LAW!
Obama vows to keep US military domonitation over the whole world so we can all 'feel' safer now.
N Korea 'conducts nuclear test'
South Korean news agency quotes government sources as saying test took place on Monday morning.
If it weren't for US military domonation over the whole world nobody would need to develope nukes for self protection.
Obama said he'd close GB.
There are only a few hundred detainees there. Transfer the prisoners to a Naval prison ship. Dock it 20 miles off NYNY.
THEN, looking like a president who has kept his word, figure it out. Try & house them as it may, but blow gitmo.
As 'commander in chief,' he could execute this in 8 hours if he wanted to.
And, instead of looking like an impotent, inexperienced politician, he would come off like Torturer in Chief Reagan when he fired the air-traffic controllers, as decisive.
BO appears legitimately flummoxed, and I don't get it. The heck w/ the ultimate adjudication of the mess, move it forward. Off the island.
On August 6, 1937, Hirohito had personally ratified his army's proposition to remove the constraints of international law on the treatment of Chinese prisoners. This directive also advised staff officers to stop using the term "prisoner of war". [Rape of Nanking]
Used "unlawful combatants" I suppose, just like Bush and Obama have done.
What I find extremely disappointing is that once again the right is framing the "debate".
We have held these people illegally and tread upon their human rights in ways that expose us for what we are.
Big Fat Hypocrites.
The point of the Geneva conventions is to define the terms of people captured in war. Those definitions are pretty clear.
These people are either soldiers, spies, or criminals.
Bush's "legal" team did not want them labeled soldiers (but wanted to use all the "war" talk) because then they would come under very specific treatment. Soldiers are not considered criminals and are to be treated with a certain respect when captured. Even though a soldier may well have killed many of the enemy, when captured this expressly cannot be considered grounds for indefinite incarceration because that is precisely a soldier's job.
They could not label them easily as "spies" because spies are out of uniform and specifically trying to infiltrate enemy lines. Most of these people were "captured" in their own country and sold for a bounty, the ones left over were probably picked up in actual military engagements (hence more fitting the 'soldier' definition). The Geneva conventions allow spies to be summarily executed when captured...if that is not done then the spy converts to a criminal.
If they are not soldiers or spies then they are suspected criminals. "Suspected" is the operative word here. A suspect has rights because they are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
That's the language that is missing here.
As far as I am concerned, ALL these people are innocent.
And until there is a trial where the evidence of their guilt is presented and it is determined beyond reasonable doubt that they are in fact guilty of the crimes for which they are accused then, as far as I am concerned, these people are not guilty.
This is supposed to be the fundamental separation between freedom and slavery. But it seems no one wants to remember this.
Bush's "legal team" knew this. That is why they had to create the words "enemy combatant" out of thin air so that these people were NOT soldiers, they are NOT spies, they are NOT criminals...they are something else and therefore we can make up the rules as we go along.
I just get so sick of the Republicans and Democrats who cannot bring themselves to see the ultimate morality of this point.
My own revulsion is not going to be unique.....and the repugs claim Gitmo isn't a recruiting tool....yea right...It made me, an American by birth, ashamed, angry, embarrassed, furious. Based on this, It's not a hard leap to believe those on the sharp end of US policy would feel the call of GITMO.
Cogent post pc, nice anaysis-yes, if they are no one they have no rights...
BS, and Bagram is worse. There is an interesting piece in the NYT's now about an American Captain trying to free an innocent man from that POW camp.
freedomland
well.... if "DICK"- by name and by nature - Cheney is so worried about self-inflicted retribution directed at the US, his lame and pathetic rebuttal of :- "we brought it on ourselves".... he might find some practical examples to try out for himself....and he might learn from the fact that not all hornets swarm and sting everyone, all the time, every time, everywhere .... BUT .... if you ram a stick, or your dick in his case, into their nest and stir it about.... the hornets will visit pain upon you.
snydly
Closing the gulags and cleaning up the Cheney/bush mess is part of the way we can honor those who have given their lives and limbs in this fiasco.
Re-building the destruction and compensating the victims somehow, would be part of it, too.
Never getting fooled again, would rap it up.
Down with WARISM, EMPIRE, and CORPORATISM.