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Title: 1/09: Obama signs order to close GITMO-12/11: Obama to sign law to imprison Americans at GITMO
Source:
CNN & Info Wars
URL Source: http://articles.cnn.com/2009-01-22/ ... amo-bay-torture?_s=PM:POLITICS
Published: Dec 15, 2011
Author: cnn / Paul Joseph Watson
Post Date: 2011-12-15 09:24:51 by Happy Quanzaa
Keywords: Obama-doma-ding-dong, Dear Leader, GITMO
Views: 1691
Comments: 3
January 22, 2009 President Obama signs the order requiring that the Guantanamo Bay facility be closed within a year. Promising to return America to the "moral high ground" in the war on terrorism, President Obama issued three executive orders Thursday to demonstrate a clean break from the Bush administration, including one requiring that the Guantanamo Bay detention facility be closed within a year. During a signing ceremony at the White House, Obama reaffirmed his inauguration pledge that the United States does not have "to continue with a false choice between our safety and our ideals." The president said he was issuing the order to close the facility in order to "restore the standards of due process and the core constitutional values that have made this country great even in the midst of war, even in dealing with terrorism." A second executive order formally bans torture by requiring that the Army field manual be used as the guide for terrorism interrogations. That essentially ends the Bush administration's CIA program of enhanced interrogation methods. "We believe that the Army field manual reflects the best judgment of our military, that we can abide by a rule that says we don't torture, but that we can still effectively obtain the intelligence that we need," Obama said."This is me following through ... on an understanding that dates back to our founding fathers, that we are willing to observe core standards of conduct not just when it's easy but also when it's hard." A third executive order establishes an interagency task force to lead a systematic review of detention policies and procedures and a review of all individual cases. The task force, Obama stated, will also "provide me with information in terms of how we are able to deal [with] the disposition of some of the detainees that may be currently in Guantanamo that we cannot transfer to other countries, who could pose a serious danger to the United States." The president also signed a memorandum requesting a delay in the Supreme Court's hearing of the case of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, a legal U.S. resident contesting his detention for more than five years as an enemy combatant. He has been held in a military brig without the government bringing any charges against him. Al-Marri's case is scheduled to be heard by the high court in March or April. Al-Marri "is clearly a dangerous individual," Obama said. "We have asked for a delay in going before the Supreme Court to properly review the evidence against him." During the second Bush term, the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay became a lightning rod for critics who charged the Bush administration with torturing terrorist suspects. President George W. Bush and other senior officials repeatedly denied that the U.S. government had used torture to extract intelligence from terror suspects. The decision to close the detention facility received immediate backing from Obama's general election opponent, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain. McCain, in a joint statement with South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham, said he supported Obama's decision to "reaffirm America's adherence to the Geneva Conventions, and begin a process that will, we hope, lead to the resolution of all cases of Guantanamo detainees." Thursday night on CNN's "Larry King Live," McCain said he thinks the new president may have been hasty in the decision and should have taken the time to consider everything associated with closing the camp before forcing himself into a timetable. Specifically, McCain said he thought Obama needed to consider what would happen to the prisoners held at Guantanamo before ordering the facility to be closed. "So, the easy part, in all due respect, is to say we're going to close Guantanamo," McCain said. "Then I think I would have said where they were going to be taken. Because you're going to run into a NIMBY [not in my backyard] problem here in the United States of America." A number of congressional Republicans criticized Obama's decision. "We cannot risk going back to the politically correct national security policies that left us vulnerable in the lead-up to 9/11," Michigan GOP Rep. Peter Hoekstra, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said in a written statement. "Without a clear plan for the detention and interrogation of captured terrorists and combatants, we are unnecessarily risking the safety of our nation." Rep. John Murtha, D-Pennsylvania, an outspoken critic of the Bush administration, praised the action, calling it "a first key step in restoring America's image and credibility in the world." "The Bush administration never understood what the Guantanamo detention facility symbolized to the rest of the world," Murtha said in a written statement. "They saw it as simply a prison. ... The problem with Guantanamo was never about its bricks and mortar. The problem with Guantanamo is that its very existence stains and defies the moral fiber of our great nation." Obama's move highlights a fierce struggle over where the prison's detainees will go next. iReport.com: Closing Guantanamo is a "risk" Asked about that issue Thursday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, "We have developed some options in terms of how many we think could be returned to other countries to take them. That diplomatic initiative has not started. That will await work in carrying out the executive order." "We have identified a number of possible prisons here in the United States" that could take the detainees. However, Gates added, "I've heard from members of Congress [representing] where all those prisons are located. Their enthusiasm is limited." Rep. Bill Young, R-Florida, said he has "quite a bit of anxiety" about the possibility of transferring detainees to U.S. facilities. "Number one, they're dangerous," Young said. "Secondly, once they become present in the United States, what is their legal status? What is their constitutional status? I worry about that, because I don't want them to have the same constitutional rights that you and I have. They're our enemy." Paul Joseph Watson UPDATE: Obama has dropped his threat to veto the bill and is now expected to sign it into law. Remember – it was Obama’s White House that demanded the law apply to U.S. citizens in the first place. The bill which would codify into law the indefinite detention without trial of American citizens is about to be passed and sent to Obama’s desk to be signed into law, even as some news outlets still erroneously report that the legislation does not apply to U.S. citizens. “The House on Wednesday afternoon approved the rule for the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), setting up an hour of debate and a vote in the House later this afternoon,” reports the Hill. Mainstream news outlets like The Hill, as well as neo-con blogs like Red State, are still pretending the indefinite detention provision doesn’t apply to American citizens, even though three of the bill’s primary sponsors, Senator Carl Levin, Senator John McCain, and Senator Lindsey Graham, said it does during speeches on the Senate floor. “It is not unfair to make an American citizen account for the fact that they decided to help Al Qaeda to kill us all and hold them as long as it takes to find intelligence about what may be coming next,” remarked Graham. “And when they say, ‘I want my lawyer,’ you tell them, ‘Shut up. You don’t get a lawyer.’” As Levin said last week, it was the White House itself that demanded Section 1031 apply to American citizens. “The language which precluded the application of Section 1031 to American citizens was in the bill that we originally approved…and the administration asked us to remove the language which says that U.S. citizens and lawful residents would not be subject to this section,” said Levin, Chairman of the Armed Services Committee. Senator McCain also told Rand Paul during a hearing on the bill that American citizens could be declared an enemy combatant, sent to Guantanamo Bay and detained indefinitely, “no matter who they are.” Quite how those still in denial could even entertain the notion that the bill would not apply to American citizens when the Obama administration is already enforcing a policy of state assassination and killing American citizens it claims are “terrorists,” without having to present any evidence or go through any legal process, is beyond naive. With the White House having largely resolved its concerns with the bill, which had nothing to do with the ‘indefinite detention’ provision, Obama could put pen to paper as early as tomorrow on a law that if recognized will nullify the bill of rights – ironically tomorrow is “Bill of Rights Day”. RELATED: The Indefinite Detention Bill DOES Apply to American Citizens on U.S. Soil 
Obama signs order to close Guantanamo Bay facility
‘Indefinite Detention’ Bill Heads To Obama’s Desk As White House Drops Veto Threat
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#1. To: Happy Quanzaa (#0)
We're just another Third World Military dicatatorship now...;}
... A second executive order formally bans torture by requiring that the Army field manual be used as the guide for terrorism interrogations. That essentially ends the Bush administration's CIA program of enhanced interrogation methods. ... A third executive order establishes an interagency task force to lead a systematic review of detention policies and procedures and a review of all individual cases. Pahleeze. Give me a break. This is nothing more than Obama trying to placate the anti-war faction of the Democrat party prior to the upcoming election. Bush did the same exact thing with the illegal immigration issue in the months leading up to his reelection. He was pro-illegal immigration right up until it was time to get serious about the election campaign. Then all of a sudden he was against it and had the border patrol "crack down" so he could brag about how hard he was working to save America. Of course, that was just bait to get the short-term memory impaired partisan retards to fall in line. It worked then and it will likely work with Obama as well. Things will go back to the new normal once the election is over whether Obama wins or not. Both parties demand a police state and they will not stop until they get it.
There's one top tier presidential candidate opposed to the police state, Ron Paul. He's a Republican RINO, too pro-American and too conservative to be a real R.
Obama's watch stopped on 24 May 2008, but he's been too busy smoking crack to notice.
#2. To: Happy Quanzaa (#0)
Promising to return America to the "moral high ground" in the war on terrorism, President Obama issued three executive orders Thursday to demonstrate a clean break from the Bush administration, including one requiring that the Guantanamo Bay detention facility be closed within a year.
#3. To: Fibr Dog, *Ron Paul for President* (#2)
Both parties demand a police state and they will not stop until they get it
"We (government) need to do a lot less, a lot sooner" ~Ron Paul
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