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For Immediate Release
January, 27 2009, 02:01pm EDT
Contact:
ACLU Media, (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org
ACLU Decries Critics of Guantanamo Closure Proposals
Following President Obama's historic order calling for the closure of Guantanamo Bay detention center and suspension of the military commissions, some critics have argued that detainees held there cannot be transferred to U.S. prisons, while others allege they will likely turn to terrorism once sent to foreign countries. Both positions are meant to obstruct the closure of the facility and a return to the rule of law, said the American Civil Liberties Union today.
The following can be attributed to Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU:
NEW YORK
Following President Obama's historic order calling for the closure of Guantanamo Bay detention center and suspension of the military commissions, some critics have argued that detainees held there cannot be transferred to U.S. prisons, while others allege they will likely turn to terrorism once sent to foreign countries. Both positions are meant to obstruct the closure of the facility and a return to the rule of law, said the American Civil Liberties Union today.
The following can be attributed to Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU:
"John McCain's criticism of President Obama shows that the Republicans are more inclined to continue with 'politics as usual' rather than give America a fresh start. Immediately after President Obama took the courageous step of ordering the closure of the illegal detention camp at Guantanamo, a chorus of Bush administration apologists, led by Senator John McCain, is already singing the same tune: 'not in my backyard.' Senator McCain and his allies are totally off the mark and at odds with McCain's own campaign pledge to close Guantanamo and move its prisoners to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The federal prison system has proven time and again that it is capable of holding convicted terrorists including Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind sheik convicted in the first World Trade Center attacks; John Walker Lindh, the 'American Taliban'; and Richard Reid, known as the 'shoe bomber.'
"Reports of detainees released from U.S. custody rejoining al-Qaeda or 'returning to the battlefield' must also be taken with a grain of salt. If the alleged terrorists re-joined al-Qaeda, it obviously happened on George W. Bush's watch. Moreover, Guantanamo and the sham military commissions are more likely to produce terrorists - both those detained in Guantanamo and elsewhere - than adherence to the rule of law and a return to American values. It was the Bush administration's detention and torture policies that made us less safe and more reviled by the Muslim world. Former President Bush's torture and detention policies certainly radicalized many individuals across the Muslim world, and President Obama's executive orders are a first step to defusing that hatred and giving us an America we can be proud of again."
The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is our nation's guardian of liberty. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.
(212) 549-2666LATEST NEWS
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Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of the most relentless proponents for using US military force overseas, died on Saturday night at the age of 71.
In a statement posted on Graham's (R-SC) social media account, the senator's office said that he "passed away from a brief and sudden illness."
"Sen. Graham's family appreciates prayers at this time," the office added, "and asks for privacy during this incredibly difficult period."
During his life, Graham advocated either starting or getting involved in multiple wars across the world, and he was reportedly instrumental in convincing President Donald Trump to launch an illegal attack on Iran without any authorization from the US Congress.
Although Graham was once a Trump critic—he infamously declared in 2016 that the Republican Party would get "destroyed" if it made the former Celebrity Apprentice host its presidential nominee—the South Carolina Republican grew to become one of the president's staunchest allies.
Some critics of Graham reacted to his death by rehashing what they considered to be his least admirable traits.
David Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect, remarked that Graham "never met a war he didn't want to send your kids to."
Alejandra Caraballo, clinical instructor at the Harvard Law School Cyberlaw Clinic, also reflected on Graham's lifetime of war mongering.
"You can say a lot about Lindsey Graham," Caraballo wrote, "but at least he got to see the thing he most wanted before he died, bombing school children in Iran."
Princeton historian Kevin Kruse predicted that Graham would leave behind a decidedly poor legacy.
"When Lindsey Graham appears in a history book," wrote Kruse, "it'll be his prediction in 2016 that the Republican Party would be destroyed for supporting Donald Trump and then a few lines about how he proved it by becoming Trump's toady. That's pretty much it. That's his legacy. Pathetic lickspittle."
Steve Schmidt, a former Republican strategist who left the party due to its embrace of Trump, wrote that Graham was "a simple, tragic man" who "lacked a moral core."
"The great empty spaces of his life were filled with an insatiable need for 'relevance,'" Schmidt observed. "He found it as a cast member in the most malignant reality show ever made."
Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, had a similar analysis of Graham's character.
"Lindsey Graham supported the International Criminal Court when it charged [Russian President Vladimir] Putin but turned on it when it charged [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu," wrote Roth. "Principled, he wasn't."
Nicholas Grossman, professor of international relations at the University of Illinois, wrote that Graham "spent the last decade of his life in public service... trying hard to be remembered as an enemy of the Constitution who worked to destroy American democracy."
Grossman added that Graham "exhibited occasional signs that he knew why that was bad but kept doing it anyway."
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Orlando J. Pérez, professor of Political Science at the University of North Texas at Dallas, said the Times report made a mockery of Rubio's professed claims to want to bring democracy back to Venezuela.
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