Cheney Assails Obama Decision to Close Gitmo; Expresses Concern That Democrats About to Take Over Don’t Realize World Has Changed

My question for Cheney: Why on earth would they want to kill us? Surely we make their lives full of bliss.

You mean Cheney the draft dodging, hate and fear mongering war criminal? He’s got to figure out a way to spin things on his way to hell.

Cheney will be the first to say “I told you so” when something happens under Obama’s watch. He doesn’t care that he ruined the image of the US worldwide or that he trampled the Constitution–only that he kept Guantanamo closed and there were no attacks on US soil. He might have even forgetten that 9/11 took place under his and Bush’s watch. And he’s certainly not ready to admit that Bush and Cheney, with their policies, have created far many more terrorists than they has locked up.

Yes I agree with the person posting here, who says Gitmo should be kept open as a museum of war crimes by those entrusted to defend American human decency but abused it. It would be fitting if the very same domestic terrorists who failed to uphold the constitution and International laws on human rights and committed war crimes are made the new inmates of Gitmo. While the current inmates are tried and convicted or released (if not guilty).

I don’t think Israel is interested in peace either….what really needs to happen is a “We talk…they listen” avenue of diplomacy…either find a way to live in peace with your neighbors or you’re on your own….and we won’t sit back and let you start up World War III…
They have a right to exist…but not the right to deprive others in the region of the same basic rights.

Lizzie – oooohhh so scared. Actually, I have no reason to fight anyone since I am not fenced in an enclosure. I can move about freely for the most part, and I am able to protect my land without anyone coming and taking it from me….at least so far.

So, who wants them, each one of you screaming about war crimes and the constitution, do you want them in your local area???? I know for a fact Kansas is fighting it with everything they have, to keep them out of Leavenworth. I don’t want them in my back yard. So those of you who want Gitmo closed so badly, lets send them to your area.

Lizzie – Israel left because the Gaza settlements were too costly. Israel didn’t do it because they wanted to do what is right. Israel has continued to blockade Gaza even during the truce. They have cut off power and water on a number of occasions. Israel has continued to expand settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. These settlements require checkpoints for protection. This means the Palestinians have to spend even more of their day sitting at road blocks within their own territories. The checkpoints in the West Bank have taken the best land as well including much of the land along the Jordan River. I don’t know what you mean by lies. These facts are easily verifiable.

J.T. – The hostage crisis happened because we were intervening in their internal affairs. We overthrew Mossadeque (sp?) in 1953, I believe and installed the Shaw. Iranians were a bit angry at our intentions and the Iranian hostage crisis came about. Mostly because the Shaw was corrupt and cruel.

Cheney is right!!!! The Democrats don’t care. If this does happened, it going to be Obama’s fault. Not Bush. That why I didn’t vote for Obama. He doesn’t have enough experience. He is going to pay more attention with his Chicago friends in the White House. Just like another Clinton Admin.

I prefer him quietly sitting in his undisclosed location. All of these interviews are making my skin crawl.

Go away, Cheney! The Democrats DO understand that the world has changed and it is you and your kind who keep up the turmoil unnecessarily. America has lost face; it is distrusted and scorned because of the attitude and lack of respect the Bush Administration has demonstrated.

Obama will never be forgiven if he allows the terrorist to attack America again. He is trying to dismantle the eavesdropping program through RAPTOR and other intelligence gathering means as well. Quit simply, he is a fool to make these changes and must be held accountable if a new attack comes.
I think Obama believes that if he is nice the terrorist will be nice. Look where that got Jimmy Carter. And by the way, it was Obama that was being burned in effigy just this week in Iran. He better come to his senses – radical Islam is not going to be impressed by his weakness.

Cheney and Bush will never get it. Places like Guantanamo and so many of their other policy decisions fly in the face of the noble ideals and moral strength of this country. America is not America if it is not also good and decent and an inspiring example to the world. If we drop into the gutter to defeat our enemies and lose our identity then our enemies have won and we are more vulnerable.

It amazes me how stupid people are. No one can name any single instance of any US citizens constitutional rights have been violated by Bush Chaney or anyone in our government. Excuse me but i didn’t know non US citizens had any rights under OUR constitution. Since when do terrorists who want to kill us have any rights? You nut bags who are still alive today because of Bush and Chaney owe them thanks and who cares what the rest of the US hating world thinks about us.

“No one can name any single instance of any US citizens constitutional rights have been violated by Bush Chaney or anyone in our government.”
The Bush administration on Tuesday will try to convince a federal judge to let stand a law granting retroactive legal immunity to the nation’s telecoms, which are accused of transmitting Americans’ private communications to the National Security Agency without warrants.
“Excuse me but i didn’t know non US citizens had any rights under OUR constitution”
Of course not as your ignorance seems to be only exceeded by your belligerence.
The Constitution calls for us to honor treaties.
Like the Geneva Conventions.
And barring that maybe you are familiar with the Declaration of Independence
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness
That would be all not just Americans.

Sent cheney out to do some quail hunting, but this time he should use the wii.

“Put them on trial as criminals.
Holding them indefinitely as prisoners of war while not declaring them such and denying them the rights of POWs seems to have been counter-productive. ”
Oh I dont know… seems to have been pretty productive. They havent been killing anyone which is their raison d’être.
What do you want to do about these CIA predator strikes that have been killing AQ leaders left and right? Talk about violating habeous corpus.
Should we stop those too?

“Oh I dont know… seems to have been pretty productive. They havent been killing anyone which is their raison d’être.”
Yes because terrorists haven’t used Gitmo to recruit thousands of new fighters.
Black and white thinking may work for conversations among right wingers but its does not work so well in the real world.
“What do you want to do about these CIA predator strikes that have been killing AQ leaders left and right? Talk about violating habeous corpus.
Should we stop those too?”
The field of battle vs within our custody.
Perhaps you are aware of the Geneva Conventions.
Then again that may be asking too much.

If you want to know who is on the correct side of history consider that right wingers on this blog are for torture and think people stating that their rights have been violated are whiners.
And these people claim to be the defenders of American values.
Which American value does torture fall under?

“Holding them indefinitely as prisoners of war while not declaring them such and denying them the rights of POWs seems to have been counter-productive.”
“counter-productive” to WHO??
We could have killed them on the battle field. They would not have to sit in jail and they would be no problem to us.

“Put them on trial as criminals.”
LOL, this is funny. I think we all see who has the most rights when it comes to trials in this country. The Criminals.

“Its the same thing. We have enough evidence to blow them up from a distance with Predator strikes but we dont have enough evidence to detain them in a cushy jail? We captured these guys in the battle field and decided not to kill them then and there. Thats how the issue arises now.”
And how were these guys captured?
Oh yeah they were taken prisoner in the heat of battle.
That you seem unable to understand killing on the battlefield and torturing within our custody is not a shock.
And that’s why right wingers are incredibly poor caretakers of American ideals.
“By your standard all of history is on the wrong side of history. The people who are on the right side of history are the ones who left themselves be killed.?”
Right wingers shed a tear for the Nazis and their brutal treatment by history.
As a principle, Americans do not torture.
Is that so hard to understand?

“Perhaps instead of playing the bleeding heart for the bad guys, you might want to consider the lives of the people who protect this country and provide you your freedom to be a whiner.”
Now I supposedly hate the troops!
How utterly predictable from the Keyboard Fightin 101st!

“By the way, the so-called rules/right of a POW…. Those were created for soldiers in a army controlled by a government.”
What a shock that you do not know the extent of the Geneva Conventions.
“They were created to allow for proper treatment of soldiers who are simply following order of superior officers.”
Mike_c invokes the Nuremburg defense…is anyone surprised?
And that is not why Geneva Convention was created.
“Oh, and do not kid yourself, EVERY country that has ever engaged in a war of any kind has used torture on people they felt had critical information. EVERY COUNTRY!”
So are you saying that Americans are hypocrites when we claim we have moral standing and that we are a beacon of freedom & liberty?
Why do you hate America?

“So then you are in favor of leaving Gitmo open indefinitely to house the guys we know are guilty but cant convict under American rules of evidence.”
My issue is with torture and the legal classification we have applied.
If we choose to hold people, they should be treated like POWs.
Its that simple.
Therefore I think Gitmo should be closed and the prisoners transferred to a military prison.

“Therefore I think Gitmo should be closed and the prisoners transferred to a military prison.”
POWs are supposed to be returned when their state arranges a cessation of hostilities. The Afghan government was defeated years ago.
However the prisoners’ allegiance really belongs to the stateless AQ. Is it possible this is a situation not anticipated by the Geneva Convention?
Note that you still have the dilemma of what to do with people you are confident are guilty but cant convict through legal channels. The point of this stroy is that the vice President says keep them locked up while O’s base wants them released.

I don’t know why anybody is interested in Cheney’s opinion on anything.

“So pursuant to any treaties signed with the Taliban their prisoner should be returned.”
I don’t think the Taliban has surrendered or signed any treaty. I think we are still fighting them.

“Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Tuesday that 61 detainees are believed as of last month to have returned to the fight against the United States since being released.”
ROFLMAO
“Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said 18 former detainees are confirmed as “returning to the fight” and 43 are suspected of having done in a report issued late in December by the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Morrell declined to provide details such as the identity of the former detainees, why and where they were released or what actions they have taken since leaving U.S. custody.”
Rights advocates contend that many Guantanamo detainees have never taken up arms against the United States and say the Defense Department in the past has described former detainees as rejoining “the fight” because they spoke out against the U.S. government.

“Rights advocates contend that many Guantanamo detainees have never taken up arms against the United States and say the Defense Department in the past has described former detainees as rejoining “the fight” because they spoke out against the U.S. government.”
Thanks- I’ll take the Pentagon’s word over self appointed “rights advocates”.
You still have no rationale why these POWs (of a non-existent country) shouldnt continue to be housed at Gitmo.
But we do have evidence why they should not be released.

“You still have no rationale why these POWs (of a non-existent country) shouldnt continue to be housed at Gitmo.”
Simple.
Gitmo was created to provide legal buffers for illegal actions resulting from not treating these terrorists as POWs.
Treat them as POWs and the need for them to be housed at Gitmo ceases to exist.
Close Gitmo and you remove a recruiting tool for the terrorists while engendering good will with the allies we need in the fight against terrorism.
The only logic for keeping Gitmo open is for Bush deadenders who are looking to rehab his legacy.
If you look at Cheney’s remarks that is exactly the context for it.

“Where is Bush’s invasion of Iran I was promised?
What happened to Bush canceling the election and declaring Martial law like progressive claimed was going to happen?”
No idea. Perhaps you should ask people who said such things.
Which reminds me….how many predictions you have made just within the last month that were complete BS.
“What happened with the wacky Loose Change guys ready to proven 9/11 was an inside job?”
Apparently they believe Obama was born in Kenya.

I like the part where Cheney enlightens us to the fact that the world is a much more dangerous place since his administration took over.

“I like the part where Cheney enlightens us to the fact that the world is a much more dangerous place since his administration took over.”
Nice pickup.

“History will judge the Bush administration very harshly. Cheney will go down as one of the most evil people ever to be in public service.”
Who would have thought the actions of the Bush administration would improve the perception of the Nixon administration in comparison.

“”Yeah, all those things came from ‘progressives’ before they got on to the current Crystal Pepsi kick.”
Which had to do with this discussion how? ”
Because you said ‘who are you going to believe’. Progressive believe all sorts of preposterous, irrational things. In 2004/2005 there were months of intellectual gymnastics about trying to prove that the morning exit polls were right and Kerry couldnt have lost Ohio by 120,000 votes. Bush is declaring martial law, Palin didnt really have he baby, Bush planned Katrina- those are all mainstream thoughts for you wacky Dems.
If you plan on keeping these guys locked up then there is no reason to close Gitmo. If you are afraid that they will be released on legal technicalities, which is the way Barry O framed things yesterday, then you dont let them out.

“A personal note to Ryan C. Thanks for your capable and balanced comments here.”
I thank you for the compliment though I think you erred by calling me balanced if referring to political bias.

What buffoons the Cheneys and Bushes are. Cheney has a big fat mouth that he can’t control. Maybe when he leaves office next week and still makes idiot comments, no one will listen to him. Like no one pays attention to Rove either now that he’s out. Don’t they realize how they look like fools to honest, thinking, decent Americans. Ugh!

From what I’ve read in major news stories, too many innocents have been incarcerated at Gitmo and in Iraq. Firstly, it would seem we can’t be the good guys if we are going to go against the Geneva Convention. And at the end of the day, the only way to win over the people is to be the good guys. Without the people’s support wars can go on and on,… just ask the Russians about Chechnya.
Secondly, as in Huh’s comment at 11:40, we need to step back and review why the Palestinian’s suffering is continuing for decades. ‘You know the blockade of Gaza, ongoing settlement expansion, increasing number of checkpoints in the occupied territories, etc.’ If any injustice is going on there, it will just fuel the anti-Israeli sentiment which feeds the violence. Dealing with the poverty in Palestine can be the much of the answer to end the violence there. Poor and disenfranchised people that feel they have nothing to lose are breeding grounds for terrorists.
Cheney’s attitude of ‘it’s us against them,’ actually made many countries look at us negatively for the first time. His brand of foreign policy should be shelved permanently.

Perhaps they’ll release the 110 really, really bad guys into Nancy Pelosi’s custody.
This is going to be fun to watch.
When you hunt for a bear, you have to be ready to catch a bear.

WASHINGTON — A federal judge has ordered the military to release a Guantanamo Bay detainee who was arrested in Pakistan when he was 14.
Mohamed el-Gharani was one of the first people to be sent to the U.S. military prison in Cuba in 2002, where he has been held ever since.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled on Wednesday that el-Gharani, who is also known as Yousuf and is now 21, is not an enemy combatant and must be released.
El-Gharani’s lawyer says he was accused of being a member of al-Qaida in 1998, when he would have been 11 years old.
El-Gharani was arrested at a mosque in Pakistan by police when he was 14. He was then turned over to U.S. forces.

Why does Cheney worry about what Pres. Obama is doing with Gitmo, when the Bush Admin. released over 60 prisoners from there already? Some of which went right back to their terrorist ways. Was the people of this nation made aware of the release of these prisoners when each one was sent back to be in the public?