Today’s Qs for O’s WH – 5/21/2009

Why would Gibbs have a question for the past V.P.? I’ll bet that there are fireworks after some of these briefings. It seems that his mind will drift when explaining inconsequential points. Maybe Jake Tapper unnerves him a bit or maybe his job is a little above his pay scale.

If you want the truth Jake, talk to the REAL president..Nancy Pelosi

But one might ask, if the prison kept us safer, if what they were doing was protecting safety and security of the American people, how on earth did they make the determination that those people should be let free? I’d be interested in the answer.
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I understand Jake to be asking how this administration would argue against holding everyone remaining, considering the “easy” people to release turned out to be pretty committed to terrorism.
Gibbs tried to make it about the old decisions on why to release people. But we are supposed to be looking forward, Mr. Gibbs! How will your administration do better?
I suspect, as in everything else, President Obama will ask Congress to hash out the details.

So Obama is being put under the knife for trying to adhere to the law and Geneva Conventions, while the Bush administration receives little attention for releasing prisoners en masse (540) with jihadists thrown in the mixture. From what I see, at least Obama is making a good faith effort to gauge a person’s guilt or innocence before coming to a decision on release or further detention. But attempting to gauge whether a detainee actually engaged in a terrorist act might prove to be impossible, thanks to the existing records which range from the extremely sparse to the non-existent. Gibbs was talking in euphemisms when he referred to it as a patchwork system. There were simply no to very few records to work from. It’s similar to the disputed CIA records controversy with Pelosi and others. At least records were kept in that situation, though after the fact and very inaccurately, with terms like enhanced interrogation technique occurring several years before the term was used in 2005.

” in working with — in conjunction with both Congress and the court system, to ensure that there’s a standard by which we’re doing that.”
Yes. The President is NOT a king, we have three branches of government specifically to dilute the ability of a single man to do things like imprison for life or torture other people without any trial, oversight, or review. It is entirely appropriate that Congress and the Judicial branch take part in dealing with this issue and also owning the solution. A lot larger part than getting one or to poorly documented briefings.

Does Gibbs consider Cheney the VP and not Biden? I’m confused by his retort.

Here is the solution,what ODuma wants cheap labor well put the Gitmo men in White house and Mivhell can keep eye on them while he uses AF one all over the place.

GIBBS: No, he’s not. But I understand he’s got some free time and doing some speaking. (LAUGHTER)
But one might ask, if the prison kept us safer, if what they were doing was protecting safety and security of the American people, how on earth did they make the determination that those people should be let free? I’d be interested in the answer.
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If Gibbs is so curious he does have access to the records and reviews of each case therefore the information on how they decided who to release.
It was not an ad hoc decision there was an intense review process and I think Gibbs is disingenuous when he implies that he has no idea how they were release.
It was a defined process and if he wants the details he should read them.

“If you want your blood to boil read this excerpt just breaking:”
Just breaking means being spread across the right wing fever swamps.
Of course when you finally do get the source of this story ( a german news website) the article is nowhere to be found.
So the copy paste is fabricated.
The lesson as always? Right wingers lie.

“If you were upset with past apology tours by Obama you will not be happy with this new news”
When in doubt the right wing makes it up and runs with it.
Even some of the lunatics at free republic doubt this story since the source is non existent.

MNM:”It is against the law to allow anyone into the US who has trained in a terrorist camp.”
Citation please.

jwh:
” He has done excellent work putting his demands of other governments into context and is well on course to equal or exceed the vastly-unappreciated diplomatic work of the FIRST President Bush (aka, the competent one). ”
What “demands” are you talking about? I know France took a detainee. What else?

Foghorn Leghorn:”What “demands” are you talking about? I know France took a detainee. What else?”
Read the speeches from his “apology tours” – the WHOLE speeches – and they’re pretty obvious. No, other countries haven’t been slavishly throwing troops into Afghanistan, welcoming Turkey into the EU, tightening sanctions on Iran, etc, but progress has been made. And words are both free and powerful, something that Bush Sr. knew and used very well.

“TAPPER: He’s not standing in front of me.”
Awesome.
Don’t know how much longer Jake will be able to hang on at ABC before the WH Gestapo requests his removal.

Good Point.. Jake Tapper might be the most successful briefing room stepping stoner .. in history.. ABC won’t be able to get rid of him.. or move him sideways.. might be cashing in his politcal punch capital .. in short order.

During the dark days of the Bush administration, the United States of America held hundreds of innocent terrorists without charge in a maximum-security detention facility in a communist country. Barack Obama was elected on a promise to end this injustice, and just days after taking office, he issued an executive order promising to keep that promise. It was a victory for American values, but it is now being snatched away by Republican obstructionists.
“The Senate voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to keep the prison at Guantanamo Bay open for the foreseeable future and forbid the transfer of any detainees to facilities in the United States,” the Associated Press reports from Washington.
But many of those ninety Senators voting “no” were–you guessed it–Republican obstructionists.

“Read the speeches from his ‘apology tours’ – the WHOLE speeches”
This is from a guy who opposes torture?

“Just breaking means being spread across the right wing fever swamps.”
Actually, “just breading” means the president just said it. The words are his own. He owns them, just as he owns the 8.9% unemployment rate.

It is not against any law that I am aware of, although that doesn’t rule out the possibility”
Well John Walker Lindh was indicted for these.
* Conspiracy to murder U.S. citizens or U.S. nationals
* Two counts of conspiracy to provide material support and resources to designated foreign terrorist organizations
* Two counts of providing material support and resources to terrorist organizations
* One count of supplying services to the Taliban.
* Conspiracy to contribute services to Al Qaeda
* Contributing services to Al Qaeda
* Conspiracy to supply services to the Taliban
* Using and carrying firearms and destructive devices during crimes of violence
Could participation in terrorist training camps deal with services?

Ask the Vice President about what to do with the 240 terrorists
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Hmmmm…….. I thought the courts have ruled that at least 17 of them were to be released. Even the Bush Admin. states they are not a threat.

“Here’s the problem: Congress told President Obama they want him to present a plan. They came up with something last year to create a trial structure. Obama doesn’t like it, and wants to close Gitmo in 7 months. That’s an election year for all of the House and 1/3 of the Senate. They aren’t going to be all that brave, I don’t think.”
Agreed.
I think the President is going to have to expend some of his political capital to get that moving.

The ball is in his court.
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Yes it is, and he said today that he was closing Gitmo. He will do it. That is the reality of it.

“…those that we capture – like other prisoners of war…”
It is quite alarming to hear this untested, unproven president use the term “prisoner of war” in this manner, suggesting that those detainees at Guantanamo are included within that term. They are not.
“Prisoner of war” is a term of art, and there is an entire Geneva Convention addressing the subject of who they are and how they are to be treated. Article 4 of that Convention defines the term. Not a single Guantanamo detainee meets the test, and I have not heard it sensibly argued that they do. I fear that this man is ill-informed or confused.

Yes it is, and he said today that he was closing Gitmo. He will do it. That is the reality of it.
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He’s got some work ahead of him, and he’s asked Congress to get involved too.
He still doesn’t know what to do with the guys who can’t be tried and can’t be released.
I don’t think he knows what to do with the Uighers yet, either.

“Has the US captured any new terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere since Obama was elected? Where are they being held? When are their court dates?”
Answers: (1) Yes. (2) At Bagram air base, in a facility housing 600 detainees, now being expanded to accommodate 1,100. (3) They have no court dates, and President Obama has said that they are not entitled to access to US Courts. US District Judge John Bates (a right-winger) overruled him on this question as to those detainees who had been seized outside of Afghanistan, and ruled that they have the right of habeas corpus.

“Question: Has the US captured any new terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere since Obama was elected? ‘
Good question. Have we captured any high value terrorists and are they being interrogated? If a high value capture is believed to have information about an attack imminent on the US that may kill many lives, what is the “better way” Obama has to get the info to possibly save those lives?

This Gitmo closing stuff is a complete joke. So he’s going to close the safest place to keep the rabid dogs, and place them on American soil?
And what is he going to do when the community that is forced to take the A-Q butchers ends up with a Breslan-like hostage situation when their terrorist brothers try and break them out? Did Obama think of that?
I’m sick of the pompous punk in the Oval Office making cannon fodder out of American Citizens just to keep his campaign promises.
Gitmo is NOT going to close, because there is not a congressperson or state governor in the country who is going to allow them on his turf. And rightly so.

ROFLMAO!
The right wing’s proudest insults are comparing Obama to Bush!
Oh how low has the GOP fallen.

I’ll have to add that Cheney OWNED Obama today. The former VP is getting so deep under Obama’s skin that he had to drag the press to the National Archives for a photo op in front of a fake copy of the original constitution.
Too bad, we all know Cheney’s un-teleprompted speech was planned weeks ago. And he made Obama’s platitude filled bilge look muddled and shallow.
For the last five months, every other word out of Obama’s mouth has been “Bush’s Fault.” How dare they criticize Cheney for setting the record straight.
And if we could just see those two memos that Cheney wants released, we’d have the whole truth. And anyone who claims that Obama couldn’t release them tomorrow is a liar.

To all the Obama pawns with their stale talking points:
PUT UP OR SHUT UP.
Insist that Obama release those two memos so that the American people can finally know the facts about the threats they faced-or admit that you’re all a bunch of pathetic political hacks who don’t care about the truth.

Probably yes to all of the above
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You claimed to affirm my question with a yes and elaborated on totally different things. It wasn’t a logical response. Anyway, since you claim the right has applauded Obama, then perhaps one can expect to see less polarization around here. But of course, that’s not going to happen.

“And if we could just see those two memos that Cheney wants released, we’d have the whole truth.”
Cheney and the truth are foreign concepts to one another.

“Obama must be criticized no matter what he does even if they agree with it.”
I agree with his policy on indefinite detention and the lack of habeas corpus rights for unlawful combatants, just as I agreed with Bush’s identical policies. The ones I criticize are those who reviled Bush for doing exactly what Obama is doing now. And they simply cannot and will not explain themselves. Who has come forward from the left to explain their support for Bagram?

“As are why they are being held and what danger they present.”
Why do you continue to write such utter and provable falsehoods? Not only is there a CSRT file on each and every man in Gitmo, but all those files are reviewable by the courts on a habeas corpus petition. Have you no regard for facts, or do you think we are unaware of those facts?

Boy oh boy, now that Obama is going down in flames he sure is turning on Biden.

Gibbs is a disgrace. His childish remarks about Cheney, today and in the past, are really illustrative of how out of his depth the press spokesman is. Tapper isn’t asking for Cheney’s interpretation, but for the WH line, Gibby. Answer the question and stop trying to dump everything on the past administration. For a WH that insists they are focused on the future, these folks spend an awful lot of time looking backward and blaming everything on the previous administration.

Kind of interesting that Gibbs is making light of the VP and his mouth during a press briefing on national security. That would be more appropriately done by the VP himself or maybe the President at the White House correspondents dinner.

Posted by: verner | May 21, 2009 5:55:50 PM
Obama gave a typical speech today blaming Bush for making a mess and all kinds of mistakes.
Then Obama tried to explain why he has kept many of Bush’s policies.
The man is a walking talking contradiction.
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Oh, you noticed that too! :)