Just when I think I can't be shocked anymore by Bush Administration bungling I find out they took it to another level.
You just highlighted half of the article that is two-sided. The current DoD says the files are complete and the CIA says they are willing to comply with any info needed. Frankly it sounds like excuses. "Sorry we cannot let these people out of prison this year because their paperwork is not in order." It all sounded so simple in his speeches!
I wish you could claim sarcasm as an excuse for this post, because you really can't be this clueless to the implications of that article.
CIA uncovered mass quantities of 8-tracks of Thin Lizzy's 70's classic "Jailbreak" at a suspected training camp in Pakistan. John Stewart's piece on this and the Republican hysteria from the other day is incredibly awesome: <style type='text/css'>.cc_box a:hover .cc_home{background:url('http://www.comedycentral.com/comedycentral/video/assets/syndicated-logo-over.png') !important;}.cc_links a{color:#b9b9b9;text-decoration:none;}.cc_show a{color:#707070;text-decoration:none;}.cc_title a{color:#868686;text-decoration:none;}.cc_links a:hover{color:#67bee2;text-decoration:underline;}</style><div class='cc_box' style='position:relative'><a href='http://www.comedycentral.com' target='_blank' style='display:inline; float:left; width:60px; height:31px;'><div class='cc_home' style='float:left; border:solid 1px #cfcfcf; border-width:1px 0px 0px 1px; width:60px; height:31px; background:url("http://www.comedycentral.com/comedycentral/video/assets/syndicated-logo-out.png");'></div></a><div style='font:bold 10px Arial,Helvetica,Verdana,sans-serif; float:left; width:299px; height:31px; border:solid 1px #cfcfcf; border-width:1px 1px 0px 0px; overflow:hidden; color:#707070; position:relative;'><div class='cc_show' style='position:relative; background-color:#e5e5e5;padding-left:3px; height:14px; padding-top:2px; overflow:hidden;'><a href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/' target='_blank'>The Daily Show With Jon Stewart</a><span style='position:absolute; top:2px; right:3px;'>M - Th 11p / 10c</span></div><div class='cc_title' style='font-size:11px; color:#868686; background-color:#f5f5f5; padding:3px; padding-top:1px; line-height:14px; height:21px; overflow:hidden;'><a href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=216571&title=guantanamo-baywatch-the-final' target='_blank'>Guantanamo Baywatch - The Final Season</a></div></div><embed style='float:left; clear:left;' src='http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:216571' width='360' height='301' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' wmode='window' allowFullscreen='true' flashvars='autoPlay=false' allowscriptaccess='always' allownetworking='all' bgcolor='#000000'></embed><div class='cc_links' style='float:left; clear:left; width:358px; border:solid 1px #cfcfcf; border-top:0px; font:10px Arial,Helvetica,Verdana,sans-serif; color:#b9b9b9; background-color:#f5f5f5;'><div style='width:177px; float:left; padding-left:3px;'><a target='_blank' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/index.jhtml'>Daily Show Full Episodes</a><br /><a target='_blank' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/'>Funny Political Videos</a></div><div style='width:177px; float:left;'><a target='_blank' href='http://www.comedycentral.com/funny_videos/index.jhtml'>More Funny Videos</a><br /><a target='_blank' href='http://www.jokes.com'>Comedians on Tour</a></div><div style='clear:both'></div></div><div style='clear:both'></div></div>
The highlighted parts said files are missing and several agencies have them. It used anon sources for that part. It went on to quote that DoD officials claim they are actually complete but just large. What am I missing?
Senate pulls Gitmo closure funding http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22758.html With Democrats in retreat, the Senate voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to put the brakes on closing the Guantanamo detention facility and any future plans by President Barack Obama to transfer prisoners to U.S. soil. The 90-6 roll call follows similar action in the House last week, and Obama is left with no new money to go forward on a signature issue for him — and less flexibility than when he first made his request this spring. All of $80 million related to the Guantanamo closing has now been stripped from a wartime spending bill moving through Congress, and the Senate amendment indefinitely bars the use of any federal funds to “transfer, release or incarcerate” Guantanamo detainees “to or within the United States.” In closing remarks, Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said Obama’s failure to present more of a plan upfront “fell smack dab into the trap” of allowing opponents to define the issue as one where the administration would be releasing detainees into communities around the nation. “We have maximum security prisons in California eminently capable of holding these people as well and from which people — trust me — do not escape,” Feinstein told her colleagues. “So I believe this has really been an exercise in fear baiting.” “I believe that American justice is what makes this country strong in the eyes of the world,” Feinstein continued. “And American justice has to be applied to everyone, because if it isn’t, we then become hypocrites in the eyes of the world. We should return to our values and one of the lasting symbols of returning to these values is, in fact, the closure of the facility at Guantanamo.” Obama will try to regain the initiative in a speech Thursday when he is expected to address the “grid” of security and values issues raised by Guantanamo. A special executive task force is slated to report in July, shedding more light on how the Defense and Justice departments would carry out the closing by next January. But unless the president is able to convince lawmakers to allow some prisoner transfers into the U.S. the whole timetable is in jeopardy. At a time when new polls show the president riding high on national security issues, Guantanamo remains especially nettlesome. The president has seemed to hurt his own cause by sending mixed signals as he sorts through the complexity of the larger detainee issue. And he found himself lectured Tuesday by his old rival, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who also supports the closing of Guantanamo but said Obama botched the effort by taking a “piecemeal” approach without building a plan and consensus upfront. All this comes against a backdrop in which a new Democracy Corps poll shows Obama enjoying even higher approval ratings for his handling of national security issues than he does on domestic policy. And the president’s performance is credited with erasing in the poll the typical Democratic national security deficit that has shadowed the party since the Vietnam War. By a 36-point margin, for example, the poll found that voters are more likely now to trust Democrats over Republicans to improve global respect for the United States. Jeremy Rosner, one of the authors, told POLITICO that Obama’s vow to close Guantanamo is an example of how “this president has been able to send a message improving American standing in the world.” But matched against this success are the more localized, often emotional politics, Republicans have used to spook Democrats, fearing voter backlash over detainees being moved into their home states. These emotions were well-captured Tuesday by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s seemingly contradictory comments after a party muncheon in the Capitol. The Nevada Democrat insisted that closing Guantanamo was still the right decision but said, “We will never allow terrorists to be released in the United States.” Asked next if he could see a day when Guantanamo detainees might be transferred to prisons on American soil, Reid refused to clarify his remarks. “We don’t want them around,” he said. Reid’s counterpart, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was early to see the localized politics of the issue and has beaten the drums steadily on the Guantanamo issue. With his blessing, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) — whose state is home to Fort Sill, a possible detention site — was already poised Tuesday to offer an amendment to bar the transfer of any detainee to American soil, and this helped to force the Democratic retreat. As reported by the Senate Appropriations Committee last week, the $91.3 billion wartime measure kept the Guantanamo $80 million intact but fenced off the money until a detailed plan was submitted by the president. But with Democrats wavering, Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) agreed to effectively embrace Inhofe’s approach and strip out all of the $80 million. Inouye held out the option that Obama could still seek funding as part of the regular Defense and Justice department appropriations bills for the new fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. But at this stage, securing the money now — without an approved plan — was a “nonstarter,” he said. The White House has sought to downplay the setback, but there was palpable relief among Democrats like Sen. Evan Bayh, up for reelection in Republican-leaning Indiana next year. Even freshly elected senators with a six-year term in front of them could see the dangers. “I didn’t hear anybody bring it up,” Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) said, recalling town meetings he held during the spring break in April. “But my guess is if you had one headline that we were opening a facility, the first issue would be where. And if it was in Albuquerque, N.M., I’d think we would get many, many calls.”
I was wondering when someone would post the Gitmo news. It certainly looks like a blow to Obama, but we'll see what happens after he speaks and if he announces a formal plan for closing Gitmo, that may lead to a different result.
These idiot senators (d's included) who voted for this should be ashamed of themselves. Dude, watch Oz, Locked Up, or any number of prison shows - life in prison is no joke. As I said earlier, these guys aren't Evil supervillain masterminds - which is why most of them are routinely held in federal prison (along with far more dangerous inmates & escape risks) without incident. Grow up, idiots. ...calls from municipalities willing to bend over backwards to be a part of the cash cow that is a big, job creating federal prison. See Florence, Colorado.
I suspect he can force the issue- as the commander in chief, he can order the military to close guantanamo, regardless of budgetary constraints, and they are obliged to obey. He can also order them to remand the prisoners to the custody of the federal bureau of prisons. Nobody can stop him.
Aren't there military prisons? Why can't they be housed there? Reid et al have been unbelievably stupid on this.
We kept Omar Abdel Rahman and Ramzi Yousef, among others, in the M.C.C., right off Foley Square in dowtown Manhattan for a few years while they awaited trial and sentencing for the 1993 WTC bombing. They are now at the SuperMax facility in Colorado. I'm trying to figure out what the problem is. If they need a place to put the 2001 bombers, I volunteer the use of the MCC, just a few miles away from my house. All these scared hicks from the rest of america I guess aren't man enough to imprison a few terrorists in their burgeoning prison industrial complexes.
Sam: I don't like comparing TV to reality, though I agree much of what you see may be true. I don't think people are as afraid of breakouts as they are terrorist attacks against their city. I'd agree though that those people shouldn't be afraid. I don't want a prison in my area, but mainly for image purposes. If they want to go stick it in the middle of Twiggs County, GA(Close to me, but very rural) than that would be fine.
Seems like other small communities in rural areas aren't so afraid of terrorists either. Hardin in national limelight after Gitmo proposal By BECKY SHAY Of The Gazette Staff The long halls of the Two Rivers Detention Facility may be empty and dark, but the building is aglow in the national spotlight. The executive director of Two Rivers Authority, which owns the facility in Hardin, is fielding calls and giving interviews to national media since word came out the organization would like house Guantanamo detainees. After two days of working with local media, TRA Executive Director Greg Smith started getting the national calls Thursday. He talked to MSNBC in the afternoon and was on a Los Angeles radio talk show Thursday night. This morning he is doing a live interview with "Good Morning America. He's also scheduled to talk to Alan Colmes, formerly of Fox television's "Hannity and Colmes" program, who has a syndicated radio show. People from Fox and CNN will interview him, too. Next week, he'll be in Billings to interview with National Public Radio and tape a show for Montana Public Radio. The 460-bed detention facility has been empty since construction finished in July 2007 as TRA looks for contracts to house inmates. As part of the ongoing search for inmates, Smith started looking into the federal process to contract for the alleged enemy combatants that will be sent to the United States or their home countries. That transfer is to happen in the next year. President Barack Obama signed an executive order to close the detention facility in Cuba by late January 2010. Montana's congressional delegation used strong language to reject the idea of creating a Gitmo North and bringing terror suspects to Montana. Their reaction didn't surprise Smith, who Friday said he was pleased to receive supportive e-mails and calls from around the nation. Smith said he respects people's personal opinions about whether or not to bring the detainees to Montana. However, he can't abide those who support giving the detainees due process rights but claim a "not in my backyard" attitude. "You can't want to give these people all the rights we enjoy and not be willing to bring them where we are," he said.
When has a prison ever been the target of a terrorist attack? As previously stated, we have housed hundreds of terrorists in various detention facilities nationwide for decades - with (zero?) recorded instances of this ever happening. Why would you attack a prison? Kill a bunch of prisoners? I suspect the reaction of lots of man on the street types would be "well the prisoners deserved it anyway!" As a terrorist target, a large secured facility in the middle of nowhere in an area of low population density is about as ineffective as humanly possible if the idea is to maximize casualties. Why would you try to attack a guarded prison on a high plateau in rural Colorado over an airport, a skyscraper etc in a major metorpolitan area? Thinking logically and rationally about these issues destroys lots of the arguments against it.
You got it. They are scared sh**less. I remember when people on this bbs asked me sincerely if I wasn't scared that Al Qaeda would get me in Houston TX. Obama and the Dems figure you can only l try to reeducate the knownothings on a few issues at a time.
I don't think anyone would bother with a terrorist attack on a prison. The nearby city of that prison, if it has a reputation for housing the terrorists, might make a good symbolic target. Still, it's a dumb fear. I don't mind having the terrorists near me. Bring them over. I expect this vote will be a speed bump in the prison closure. Obama will work up some kind of plan and make deals for votes and get money freed up again. I seriously doubt he would try to close Guantanamo without money from Congress (even if it might be a good idea). That's something Bush may have done.
