Obama to close Gitmo despite setbacks from previous administrations

That's not what happened, but anyway, I'm admitted to practice before SDNY - what precisely is the nature of your objection to the criminal justice process there?

You do know that the USA for SDNY has succesfully prosecuted hundreds of anti-terrorist actions, hell I worked iwth a few of them - they may even be undefeated since the 1990's- what about this process renders it an unfit tribunal?

 

So what's the game here? Obama is going to go by executive order and fight it out with Congress before the Supreme Court?

 

KSM should not have access to our criminal justice system (and all the rights that come with it), because he's (1) not a citizen and (2) not a criminal, but rather an enemy combatant.

He should have been tried by military tribunal and executed a long time ago, but Anthony Kennedy put a stop to that.

 

The point that I don't understand is there something inherently wrong with our criminal justice system where KSM would not receive the justice he deserves?

 

Rights don't come from the criminal justice system. His rights come from being under the dominion of the United States, which has guaranteed rights for all people, citizen and non-citizen, in the Constitution. Hiding him offshore doesn't make it okay that we violate his rights. I'd have been fine with a military tribunal, but the government decided not to go that way. But they do have to go some way and not just imprison him forever without some sort of due process.

 

1) The Bill of Rights applies to non-citizens.

2) So the United States is violating the Geneva Conventions?

 

So, you're right there in the same bin of delusion as mojo"man" where Obama should have closed Gitmo without Congressional authority using funds that Congress wouldn't provide and since he didn't go around Congress in that way you blame Obama rather than the Congress which refused to give authority and funding?

Yet again, there isn't an big enough for your lunacy.

 

1) If we are going to treat them as if they are no different from US citizens then charge them with treason and have them executed.

2) The protections of the Geneva Convention largely do not apply to terrorists because they are not lawful combatants, civilians, or POW's.

 

Oh I'm not blaming Obama for not going around congress, just pointing out yet another example of him trying to push policy that he can't even sell to the whole of his own party.

 

And zero Republicans, which is my point, but you just want to ignore the actual point.

Obama wanted to close down Gitmo, Congress wouldn't give him the authority or funding to do so, largely as a result of the complete and utter intransigence of the Republicans in Congress. As a result of your partisan bias, you choose to blame Obama, who doesn't have authority, instead of Congress, which does.

You're welcome to be a biased partisan, but don't expect those of us who are able to think clearly to take you seriously.

 

If it was all about selling to his own party, it would have been done years ago. Unfortunately, it isn't, so it hasn't. The Republicans absolutely refuse to support anything proposed by Obama and they are doing so for selfish, partisan gain. I guess you only chimed in because you saw what you thought was an opportunity to disparage Obama for what you perceive as a lack of leadership ability. However, your self-imposed blinders keep you from seeing the plain, simple fact that the blame for Obama's inability to work with Republicans in Congress belongs to the Republicans who refuse to work with him. He has tried repeatedly to bring them to the table, they have refused every single time.

 

LOL if Obama can't even sell it to his own party, why the hell would you think Republicans would go along with it?

I guess that's the standard for Obama, if he can get support from the furthest of the fringe left then EVERYONE should support it right?

 

It would have been done years ago if he could have sold it to his own party....he couldn't. Now he can't sell it to his own part OR the Republicans who now control congress....how is that a shock?

This is just another example of your ridiculous partisanship, trying to blame Republicans for Obama being completely out of touch and trying to push policies that are non-starters that he couldn't even sell his own damn party on.

 

Go ahead, continue to ignore the fact that there are political calculations that go beyond the value of the bill in question when Congresspeople choose to vote for or against, particularly when the vote's outcome is already known. There are plenty of Democrats who voted against the bill I highlighted who would have voted for it in order to pass had there been just a handful of Republicans willing to break out of lock-step. Unfortunately, lock-step is just what they have done for the last eight years, to our nation's detriment.

No, the standard should be that if it is good policy, then you should vote for it regardless of party lines, as it had been many times in our nation's history. Unfortunately, the GOP has decided to oppose absolutely everything proposed by Obama, since their primary goal from day one was to make him a "one-term president."

Let that sink in. Their number one priority in 2009 was NOT fixing the economy, stabilizing our financial markets, protecting the jobs and investments of the middle class, or anything positive at all. Their number one priority was to make him a "one-term president."

Sad that people like you buy that bullsh!t.

 

Actually, he could have, but chose to work on bigger priorities instead, to the betterment of the country.

It isn't a shock at all, the shock is that idiots still support the GOP when they don't have any policy proposals of their own, they just want to repeal Obamacare and trust them to come up with something to fix the previous, badly broken, system once the repeal is complete.

Yeah, I'm the one who is ridiculously partisan.

Try again, rookie.

 

1) To do that, you have to go through the judicial system, which is the entire point of this discussion.

And no, they'd be treated like any US non-citizen--the Bill of Rights applies to non-citizens as well in US territory. Citizens only have a very specific few enumerated rights.

2) The bolded and underlined was the point I was trying to get out of Commodore.

 

You'll be happy to know that largely that is the standard, and if it was a good policy, it would have been supported. It wasn't a good policy, so it wasn't supported....even by Democrats.

I know you think that if Obama supports something, it has to be good, but sadly that's not true.

That's true, he was busy trying to coerce enough support in his own party to push through Obamacare using billions in pork because yet again, he couldn't get enough support from his own party. There's a trend here if you are open to seeing it.

 

He would have been wise to consider that before he opened his pie-hole before the whole world and promised to close GITMO his first month on the job, whereby his fellow Democrats promptly lined up with the Republicans in Congress.

Then in a huge bipartisan move, they passed legislation blocking any of these detainees being brought to US soil by a very large margin. This legislation was then signed into law by Obama himself, a law which has been legislatively reconfirmed by Obama's signature several times since then, with the most recent occurrence being the federal funding bill he signed last month.

What an assclown Obama is.

 

Funny how people LOVE bipartisanship till it goes against what they want. If half the Democrats and all of the Republicans banded together against something, that's absolutely bipartisanship only our buddy here doesn't like that because it was against the Obama.

 

I never thought it was, you're such a biased partisan that you aren't even able to accurately assess the positions of others.

He did get the support of his own party through various compromises. He saw the ACA is a far more important issue than Gitmo and as a result, millions of people who didn't previously have healthcare coverage now do.

Yes, the clear trend is the GOP opposing everything Obama does or says in lock-step, without question or critical thinking, just as you do here.