Two Presidential Task Forces on the War on Terror Fail to Meet Deadlines

Don’t worry it will get worse, it will not get better. I did not vote for Obama and I never will.

If things work well, I take all the credits … If things DON’T work, I inherited these mess!!!

Actually President Obama should be letting The Secretary of Defence handle these kinds of matters. I think Robert Gates was a Great Choice for Secretary of Defence.

Better question: will Gitmo have Obama out by January.

The president is doing the hard work necessary to put our country back on track. Any delays in “reports” is to get it right. Fix 8 years of destruction in 6 months/ = unreasonable.
I’m behind the ‘smart’ president.

“because they initially had been created without congressional approval”
That’s the main problem with Guantanamo in a nutshell: It was the Executive branch playing a technicality to make his own personal dungeon outside the Constitution. One that they tried to put an American citizen arrested on American soil in without any trial it should be noted (Padilla). Extraordinary measures are necessary at times, but never before had they required destroying Constitutional checks to implement.
The far left will surely attack Obama for turning to military tribunals and such – Obama is certainly no cult of personality – but as long as it is done within the framework of the Constitution, with Obama returning Constitutional oversight powers Bush stole from Congress and the Courts, I doubt he’ll take much flak from the reasonable center. It was the precedent of a President exercising dictatorial powers that was most dangerous under Bush’s Republican administration.

Crapweasel caught with another broken disappointment and the transparency is wearing thin for “slim”.
Looks like America is waking up with an Obama hangover. Not me……I never drank the kool-aid!!

get a grip says: ”
The president is doing the hard work necessary to put our country back on track. Any delays in “reports” is to get it right. Fix 8 years of destruction in 6 months/ = unreasonable.
I’m behind the ‘smart’ president.”
If he was so smart then why did he not see your “Fix 8 years of destruction in 6 months/ = unreasonable.”

Jason:” “One that they tried to put an American citizen arrested on American soil in without any trial it should be noted (Padilla).”
That is pretty disingenuous. ”
Disingenuous? You just verified the fundamental basis of my point – he arrested a US citizen on US soil and tried to declare him an enemy combatant, who would have no Constitutional rights under his argument or recourse to the Judicial branch. If you can do that to a guilty citizen, you can to that to any citizen. Protesting too rambunctiously against a Hillary 2016 rally? That’s terrorism – ship that enemy combatant off!
There are some slippery slopes that have been proven over millenia to destroy countries, and Bush was smugly slaloming down a big one.

===Posted by: jhw539 | Jul 21, 2009 9:38:41 AM===
Bagram. Doesn’t have the same ring to it that Gitmo does but serves the same purpose. You have no idea what interrogation techniques will be allowed under Obama because the committee is still out.

so jhw, are you making this distinction purely on the basis of citizenery?
Also, your statement of guilt is rather odd… “If you can do that to a guilty citizen, you can to that to any citizen.”
HUH? exactly what are you extrapolating here?

Axey:”Bagram. Doesn’t have the same ring to it that Gitmo does but serves the same purpose. You have no idea what interrogation techniques will be allowed under Obama because the committee is still out. ”
Bagram is in an area of active hostilities and is NOT importing prisoners from around the globe. Gitmo was unprecedented.
Obama has made clear policy changes regarding interrogation techniques. Republicans can’t condemn him one day for banning ‘critical tools’ and then snidely insinuate the next day that they are still used. Well, they can and do – which is why their credibility is below that of a used car salesman.

Mike_C:”so jhw, are you making this distinction purely on the basis of citizenery?”
That is the scary slippery slope, yes. He claimed that on his own personal say so, without any Congressional or judicial oversight to verify the veracity of his claims, he could strip a US citizen of all constitutional rights. I don’t care if the person was Charles Manson, that is never a power of the President in our nation. No American citizen should ever be tried, convicted, and sentenced by a single man.

jhw,
So on 9/12 you didnt feel any different than you did during the Vietnam War? Just so we have a valid frame of reference here, what year were you born in ?

Who said:
“Six months into the Obama presidency, I would say without hesitation that the landscape, atmosphere, conversation, and agenda have strikingly changed compared to the previous eight years.
“In this legislative session, we can envision winning a Medicare-like public option and then going further in the years ahead.
“…In the current political climate, the expansion of union rights becomes a real possibility.
“Much the same can be said about winning a second stimulus bill, and we sure need one, given the still-rising rate, and likely long term persistence, of unemployment.
“…The new conditions of struggle are possible only – and I want to emphasize only – because we elected President Obama and a Congress with pronounced progressive and center currents.
“Yes, socialism is our objective and, according to recent public opinion polls, it is increasingly attractive to the American people. But clearly it is not on the immediate political agenda.
“…As for our radicalism, we should be as radical as reality itself. And reality strongly suggests that our main task is to bring the weight of the working class and other democratic forces to bear on the reform process with the aim of deepening its anti-corporate content and direction.
“…Let’s be aware that he [Obama] has to keep a coalition together for his long-term as well as immediate legislative agenda. Let’s give President Obama some space to change and to respond to pressures from below.
“…The Right Wing, the American Medical Association, the pharmaceutical and insurance companies have drawn a line in the sand on health care.
“…The core of this struggle, whether we like it or not, turns on the inclusion of a public option in a health care bill.
“…Months ago it was said that the downturn could be “L-shaped” rather than “V-shaped.” In other words, the crisis begins with a steep decline in economic activity followed by long period of economic stagnation.
“I suspect that this is what will happen, thus making sustained government and people’s intervention an imperative…”
Who is this person so simpatico with President Obama’s agenda? Sam Webb, *National Chair of the Communist Party USA.
On Human Events list of the top 10 worst books ever written, the top two were Marx’s Communist Manifesto (#1), followed by Hitler’s Mein Kampf (#2). Why? Hitler killed at least 10 million; *communism killed at least 100 million.

“No American citizen should ever be tried, convicted, and sentenced by a single man.”
Now this would be where you and other would run out the right-winder always lie routine if any of us ever wrote that.
You have of course heard of the term Bench Trial…right?
Many Americans are indeed tried, convicted & sentenced by a single man every year!
In these circumstances, it would fall to the defendant to determine if waiving his right to a jury trial would serve him better.
But your blanket statement was indeed wrong!

Trajan wrote: “I hear that the July budget deficit re-port is “delayed” until mid August. Could Bush have done this without castration by YOU and other media?Oh, well.”
I see you’ve just begun studying government. Congratulations. If you can find archival news, I’m sure you’ll also learn that past Presidents, including Bush, frequently delayed such reports.
In fact, Bush played the trick of leaving most of the cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars out of the budget so the deficit wouldn’t appear as massive as it really was, then asked for the money in “supplemental budget” requests.

Mike_C:”"No American citizen should ever be tried, convicted, and sentenced by a single man.”
You have of course heard of the term Bench Trial…right?
Many Americans are indeed tried, convicted & sentenced by a single man every year!”
What nonsense. A bench trial in a criminal case is ONLY done if the defendant themselves waives their right to a jury trial. And they do not waive their right to appeal nor their Constitutional rights, so that single judge cannot on a whim convict them and leave them with no recourse.

Both of their actions were then indeed vetted through the Supreme Court over time. Both of their actions were done in the United States, clearly under the (eventual) jurisdiction of the Constitution and Supreme Court’s power of review.
================
I’m trying to figure out how Guantanamo hasn’t been under the review of either the Supreme Court or Congress.
Congress has the funding- in fact, they just refused to fund the closing of it.
And SCOTUS has issued several decisions about Guantanamo.
Also, just for reference, there were WWII POW camps throughout the US. Michigan, Texas, Ohio, Arkansas and more states had them.

===Posted by: jhw539 | Jul 21, 2009 11:10:19 AM===
You never did tell me a case where Bush defied a court order. But don’t bother. I get it. Bush bad. Obama good.

It’s not comfortable to accept but it is true.
In time of war, justice – the trial and conviction of those guilty of crimes against our people, and also the release of those “innocent” of specific crimes is THIRD in the proper priorities of any nation wanting to sustain its institutions and prevail on the battlefield.
First comes intelligence by the interrogation and penetration of our enemy’s plans, logistics and organization.
Second comes detention of those that 1)taken up arms, 2) have vowed to terrorize the West and their own people until they capitulate to their demands.
Normally POWs under #1 only can be detained for the duration but practically speaking they have been released within months on Afghan and Iraq battlefield.
Those trained and committed under #2 however are a danger beyond their own individual strength and as even Obama’s advisors are coming to the conclusion that indefinite detention is the only course.

“Bush cut out Congress…”
That is a lie. Please don’t forget that Pelosi and the Dems were all for waterboarding.

Mike_C:”So on 9/12 you didnt feel any different than you did during the Vietnam War? Just so we have a valid frame of reference here, what year were you born in ?”
On 9/12/01 I didn’t feel any different than on 4/20/95. I had heard from my friends that they and their loved ones were fine, and I was outraged at the senseless murders that had occurred.
Are you suggesting that 9/11 was worse than Vietnam, a war that killed over 58,000 of our service men, ignited violent nationwide riots and protests, and was LOST against the actual existential threat of Communism?
I was born in the early 70′s, but even I have enough perspective to understand where Bin Laden lays on the trash heap of thugs.
Posted by: jhw539
————————————-
So, at least now I understand a couple of things here.
As for me, I was born in late 1950′s I grew up watching Cronkite (mostly because my dad was a CBS news guy in those days and just liked Cronkite more) and sometimes Chet Huntley & David Brinkley on NBC every night. I watched night after night with my Dad as the reports came in with the casualty numbers posted on the screen. I remember asking him about those numbers and what they meant. I had uncles & a couple of older cousins who fought there.
Comparing the event of 9/11 to a multi-year war is obviously not fair. Nor was I attempting to make that comparison, you took that leap on your own. I was talking about comparing the reaction just after it to how you felt before it. If you say you felt the same after you found out your loved ones were safe, but felt nothing different than outrage for those who were murdered, than I guess your just wired much differently than everyone I know.
My dad and everyone I personally know close to his age likened it to the same reaction as Pearl Harbor. Your comment makes it sound like an over the top Mason murder spree.
The country was attacked, those who did it openly said so. You can frame it anyway you like, but that is the truth. I have not met anyone who on 9/12 did not think there was a very real threat out there and that we could be hit again. I do believe (despite some stupid comments by people from the both extreme left & right) that NO ONE really wanted more, but the reaction was anger, not “oh look thats such a tragedy”.
It is not possible for you to understand what watching the Vietnam War in your home each night was like for America in th elate 1960s and early 70′s. It was the first time that the people at home were seeing the daily efforts and the grind of a war in their own homes. It was a deep departure from the old newsreels and movies of the past. The coverage was also a big part of the anti-war movement; the fact the war was right there in front of you each night. The war and how it was managed would eventually lead to Johnson’s decision not to run for re-election.
In the same way, until 9/11, it was not possible for those of us who born post-WWII to really grasp the effect of Pearl Harbor on the American people. We read about it, we talked to those who experienced it, but it was all second hand to us. 9/11 changed that.
My point was abut how you honestly felt the day after the attacks, not now looking back at it knowing we were not hit again.
The debate about how Bush handled it will go on forever, the same as how Eisenhower/Kennedy/Johnson/Nixon handled Vietnam & how wether or not Truman should have used the atomic bomb.
The same will most likely be said of Obama handles Afganistan. While I do not support his agenda of domestic policies, I sincerely hope the situation there runs smooothly. I think we all feel that way, but I also think we all realize that chances of that happening are not good given where the fighting is taking place and the fragile situation with all the players in that region.

Excellent comments, Mike C.
And when Pearl Harbor happened, everything that went before done in the Axis threat – the occupation of Manchuria and Korea, Sudetenland, the tripartite pact, cutoff of steel to Japan came crystal clear.
4/19/95 (OK City) is NOT like 9/11 at all – it was a one-off. On the other hand, the 93 WTC, the embassy bombings, the Cole were all “shocks” that did not long resonate UNTIL 9/11

Wonder what you guys will say if that poor solider gets waterboarded.
=======
That is hardly the worst alQ has in their bag of tricks.
Nancy admits she was told about water boarding, and that her aide was told, she’s just arguing about the time line.

“The CIA just admitted they did not fully brief Congress.”
Pelosi was briefed, but don’t take my word for it. She of course blamed her staff.
“But right wingers love their torture.”
You didn’t get the memo. The term is now “enhanced interrogation techniques” as used by the current occupant of the WH and Rahm Emmanuel.
“Wonder what you guys will say if that poor solider gets waterboarded.”
I’d say he’s lucky…

“Excuse me, Ryan, you think that the Taliban gives a flip about the Geneva convention? What nonsense goes thru your particular set of neurons??!!”
So if they waterboard him, will you tell him to toughen up and its only a temporary discomfort?

So if they waterboard him, will you tell him to toughen up and its only a temporary discomfort?
That’s what we were told…

If the President’s task forces want time to “get it right” why are they okay to ask for this, but Senators, House members, constituents, and industry experts who are asking for more time on health care (a significant portion of GDP spending) are “blocking progress”?
Can’t have it both ways. Sorry bro.

“Hmmm under whose direction was that undertaken?”
Sounds like Barack Obama:
“The Obama administration has not only continued the Bush policy of using drones to carry out targeted assassinations, but has also continued the use of prisons where people are held indefinitely without charge or access to the International Committee of the Red Cross. Under Obama, Bagram air base in Afghanistan is expanding and, at present, hundreds of prisoners are held there without charges. In essence, the Obama administration is doing exactly what this secret CIA program sought to do, albeit out in the open.”

“Actually the term “enhanced interrogation techniques” comes from the Bush administration.”
Of course it does. And it seems to suit Barack and Obama just fine. More otiginal thinking! Another continuation of Bush’s policies by this “new” President.
PS enhanced techniques are still with us. But don’t say it too loud.

“There are 3 things that American people want DONE, but don’t want to know about HOW it was done, they would be:
1) The assasination of Osama and Zawahiri
2) the interdiction of rogue nuclear materials and other WMD
3) the meaning and truth in the final episode of the Lost TV series.”
I call BS! Here’s the deal:
1. Slow and Painful
2. Lots of explosions
3. Don’t care

Dont understand Mr Funco
Unless properly executed,
1. Slow and Painful (would be what they would do to our agents)
2. Lots of explosions (would be what they would do to our cities)

This administration is failing in just about every way possible. Can’t keep deadlines, can’t keep basic campaign promises, can’t tell the truth about anything.

This is what Obama calls “transparency”. He doesn’t have a clue as to what he’s doing at all.