Gitmo Update

[classicman]

Closing Gitmo and moving them onto US soil are two VERY different situations and, I believe, have very different legal ramifications.

[ZenGum]

Here's a wacky idea.
It is "wrong" to keep these people in prison without trial.
It is legally virtually impossible to have a proper trial after all the, ahem, enhanced interrogation etc.
But it would be high risk to just let them go wandering off where-ever they like. If you'd locked me up for seven years, I'd be pissed at you and want revenge, even if I hadn't been a terrorist to start with.

So, how about we convert Gitmo into a luxury resort, and keep them there?
The islolation cells become private suites. Waterboarding is replaced with wakeboarding. Kangaroo courts are replaced with tennis courts. Handcuffs are replaced with some nice jewelry. Burly guards are replaced with masseuses.

They're still all where we can watch them and they can't do much, but their lives are much better.

[TheMercenary]

I like it. Or we could just send them to Sandles @ Palau.

[ZenGum]

Ahh, we call that the "pacific solution". Got a nice ring to it, don't you think.
Maybe you might call it the April Sun in Cuba Holiday Resort Solution.

Nauru is a great place to store boat people applying for refugee status.

[TheMercenary]

I have never been to Palau but we did take care of a lot of their people when I was at Tripler AMC in Hawaii. From what I gathered there is not much there, not much to do when you are there, and most people are dirt poor.

[TheMercenary]

Well how about that? Where is the outcry?

Obama may hold detainees indefinitely

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/24278.html

[classicman]

It has its own thread and there was an entire discussion on it while you were away - meh.

[TheMercenary]

meh..... my bad.

[TheMercenary]

Paging Valerie Plame, paging Valerie Plame!

Detainees Shown CIA Officers' Photos
Justice Dept. Looking Into Whether Attorneys Broke Law at Guantanamo

By Peter Finn
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 21, 2009



The Justice Department recently questioned military defense attorneys at Guantanamo Bay about whether photographs of CIA personnel, including covert officers, were unlawfully provided to detainees charged with organizing the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

Investigators are looking into allegations that laws protecting classified information were breached when three lawyers showed their clients the photographs, the sources said. The lawyers were apparently attempting to identify CIA officers and contractors involved in the agency's interrogation of al-Qaeda suspects in facilities outside the United States, where the agency employed harsh techniques.

If detainees at the U.S. military prison in Cuba are tried, either in federal court or by a military commission, defense lawyers are expected to attempt to call CIA personnel to testify.

The photos were taken by researchers hired by the John Adams Project, a joint effort of the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, to support military counsel at Guantanamo Bay, according to the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the inquiry. It was unclear whether the Justice Department is also examining those organizations.

Both groups have long said that they will zealously investigate the CIA's interrogation program at "black sites" worldwide as part of the defense of their clients. But government investigators are now looking into whether the defense team went too far by allegedly showing the detainees the photos of CIA officers, in some cases surreptitiously taken outside their homes.

If proved, the allegations would highlight how aggressively both military lawyers and their allies in the human rights community are moving to shed light on the CIA's interrogation practices and defend their clients. Defense attorneys, however, described the investigation as an attempt by the government to intimidate them into not exposing what happened to their clients.

When contacted about the investigation, the ACLU declined to discuss specifics.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...004295_pf.html

[classicman]

Friday marks the one-year anniversary of President Obama's pledge to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay within the year. And, as anyone who has paid any attention to national security matters knows, the deadline will not be met.

In fact, on Thursday the White House announced that they did not have a time frame for shutting Gitmo down.

"I don't know when the process will be done," Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said during the daily briefing. "I know they made great progress... establishing first and foremost case files and recommendations of who indeed was there and why. There has been progress on that. There has been progress on issue of citing a new detention facility. The president won't meet the deadline he laid out a year ago, but the president, his national security team, the generals in Iraq and Afghanistan understand the support for al Qaeda that Guantanamo provides them, in recruiting, in attracting those that seek to do us harm.

"To keep the American people safe the president pledged to close Guantanamo Bay and he will do that," Gibbs added.

There has been progress on many of the issues Gibbs noted: including pinpointing the Thompson facility in Illinois as a replacement site. But as the one year anniversary of Obama's call to close Gitmo approaches, the issue seems far from settled in the realm of politics.

Link

Perhaps idealism has met reality. Things aren't as easy in the real world.

[xoxoxoBruce]

The fact that it's taking so long shows they just aren't turning everybody loose for political gain. They are doing cautiously, and systematically, but most importantly, they're doing it... as promised.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

The fact that it's taking so long shows they just aren't turning everybody loose for political gain. They are doing cautiously, and systematically, but most importantly, they're doing it... as promised.

Oh that and they want to preserve the votes. But I am not sure that you can say that transfering them from one prison to another one is really going to close the issue.

Time will tell.

[piercehawkeye45]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

The fact that it's taking so long shows they just aren't turning everybody loose for political gain. They are doing cautiously, and systematically, but most importantly, they're doing it... as promised.

Supposedly Saudi Arabia has a rehabilitation center for gitmo victims and it has a 80% rate of getting gitmo detainees to live normal lives again. But unfortunately, many of the 20% have started their own terrorist group, AQAP, and took responsibility for the Christmas Day bombing...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Care_Rehabilitation_Center

[classicman]

Originally Posted by piercehawkeye45

"getting gitmo detainees to live normal lives again."

define normal . . .

[piercehawkeye45]

Originally Posted by classicman

define normal . . .

Not blowing up people....

http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/04/27/71553.html

Here's a PBS documentary video of the center
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/un...and-back/4180/