Guantanamo Review in Full Swing: Attorney General to Visit Facility Next Week
EmailABC News’ Jason Ryan Reports: After his speech today on race relations in America commemorating Black History Month, Attorney General Eric Holder said on Monday he and the Acting head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, Matthew Olsen, will be going to Guantanamo Bay next week. "Matt will be going with me to Guantanamo next Monday we need to have our feet on the ground to really see what is really going on at that facility to see how people are being detained to talk to people down there about the interrogation techniques being used." Holder said. As part of President Obama’s executive order to eventually close the facility, Holder has been tasked to chair the committee of Cabinet-level officials to implement the closure of the controversial detention facility. Holder will be coordinating the review with the Secretaries of Defense and State and Department of Homeland Security, as well as the Director of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "I think that will be an important first step as we try to resolve…the issues the President has put before me as the chairman of the [Review] Committee." Holder said to reporters on Wednesday.
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Guantanamo only exists to be the Executive Branch’s personal prison, technically outside of oversight by the other two branches. There is no other reason not to use a facility in the states (this isn’t the 19th century, we don’t need an island to contain people). Obama owns it now so no surprise he’s trying to get a handle on the mess. Hopefully the mishandling of the criminals in there hasn’t destroyed any hope of dealing with them within a constitutional frame work (ie, locked up for life or executed after trial by a court set up by Congress as the Constitution prescribes and approved by the Supreme Court – who gives great latitude in this kind of case).
Posted by: jhw539 | February 18, 2009, 1:43 pm 1:43 pm
@ jhw539
Or “The One” will NOT close this prison because he knows it will be political suicide to let some of these monsters loose on our judicial system. Don’t get me wrong, I think our judicial system is the best in the world; however, it was NOT set up to protect state secrets (i.e. how we found these monsters, technology used, witnesses/sources). All of these things would be asked for by the ACLU (who would be defending these terrorists). When the government is unwilling to provide these valuable state secrets, the defense will claim that as lack of evidence.
Just another way “The One” is ruining our country.
Posted by: jimbob | February 18, 2009, 2:15 pm 2:15 pm
jimbob, would you like to make a wager on that? Gitmo WILL be closed as a part of the return to the rule of law in our country. Undoing the ruinous policies of the lawless Bush administration.
Posted by: William J. LePetomane | February 18, 2009, 3:10 pm 3:10 pm
jimbob: ” Don’t get me wrong, I think our judicial system is the best in the world; however, it was NOT set up to protect state secrets”
You are woefully mistaken. There are several courts set up explicitly to protect state secrets and Congress has the Constitutional authority to set up whatever court in whatever form they see fit. The Constitution is far more flexible than you seem to think, but it does require that checks and balances be observed. If the Executive branch and Congress agree, they can do almost anything (and that is as intended).
Posted by: jhw539 | February 18, 2009, 3:17 pm 3:17 pm
It seems our government is more intent on closing our Gitmo and letting terrorists go than closing the 35 terrorist training camps in our own country and deporting those in them.
What is this country coming to when our own constitution and state laws protect these camps and we feel that Gitmo is a moral issue when we are at war.
Posted by: Dan Kidd | February 18, 2009, 3:32 pm 3:32 pm
Put all the detainees in Alcatraz, and use Guantanamo for the executive branch of Bush, Cheney and Wall Street thieves as holding cells, while we torture them, including taking all their clothes away to find out why our country is in financial ruins!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
Posted by: sngeorgia | February 18, 2009, 3:47 pm 3:47 pm
DanKidd……..
This isn’t about Morals. It’s about a treaty the U.S. entered. If we torture and jail someone unjustly, why wouldn’t it be appropiate for another country to do the same to ours. We can’t start that!
Posted by: sngeorgia | February 18, 2009, 3:54 pm 3:54 pm
Why tour the thing if the administration just wants it shut down no matter what? Is this just a PR stunt?
Posted by: matt | February 18, 2009, 3:59 pm 3:59 pm
The visit by the Attorney General makes no sense in the broader context of moving forward with the decisions Obama has made. The only reason the Attorney General would visit Gitmo is to determine what avenue will be taken when former officials are prosecuted. With BO, it’s all about undoing Bush. This is but one more evidence of that fact. Obama is a sophomore, trying to make it with the “in” crowd by tearing down last year’s quarterback.
On the other hand, there is a chance that Barack Obama has no clue what he’s doing and severely lacks the ability to discern the impact his actions will have on his cabinet and his country. That is the more frightening of the two scenarios and could very well be the truth. So far BO’s not doing so well. His approval ratings have plummeted and Wall Street (translate – normal everyday Americans’ retirement accounts) is faltering with every word he utters on the economy. He has to travel the country now to get the support of the uneducated masses he despised in the election process. Not to mention he can’t even get all of his cabinet positions filled because of corruption and rigid partisanship. His folks are even stirring up racial tensions, causing those who haven’t had a racist bone in their body to be concerned with the rhetoric coming out of the Obama White House.
If AG Holder isn’t scoping out possible prosecution scenarios, then AG Holder’s visit is evidence that Obama is foundering.
Posted by: NPage | February 19, 2009, 2:28 pm 2:28 pm
“If we torture and jail someone unjustly, why wouldn’t it be appropiate for another country to do the same to ours. We can’t start that!”
You’re kidding…right?
These terrorists don’t represent another “country”. They are like the Mafia, only beholden to themselves and independent of national borders. They do not wear the uniform of any nation. They are not under the control of any political or military structure except their own.
They routinely kill and torture those who come into their possession. If they are nice, they hold them hostage to get their own freed from prison.
Posted by: RR GOP | February 21, 2009, 9:24 pm 9:24 pm
Maybe one of the poor, pitiful, inmates there who are being tortured and treated unfairly will ‘gas’ this guy when he visits them like they do Marine guards there…maybe then he might change his position on the matter?
I, for one, would actually applaud the SOBs in this one case.
Posted by: RR GOP | February 21, 2009, 9:32 pm 9:32 pm