“…they worried that the administration might yield to pressure to display its toughness in dealing with terrorism in its detention policies.
Gitmo Theater
The “they” in that sentence are “human rights groups.” The “administration” is Obama’s. The “toughness” is a reference to the possibility that Obama would actually think carefully about how to fulfill his campaign pledge close Guantanamo Bay in the first 100 days without endangering American lives.
It’s a revealing sentence. A stark illumination of what keeps the ACLU and Human Rights Watch and the NYTimes editorial board up at night:
“…they worried that the administration might yield to pressure to display its toughness in dealing with terrorism in its detention policies.
Yeah. God forbid the administration show “toughness” in dealing with terrorists!
After weeks of managing expectations and acknowledging the dangers of shutting Gitmo down, Team Obama hit the panic button yesterday — sending out moonbat signals to mollify the far Left.
Yielding to the pressure to display softness in dealing with terrorism in its detention policies, you see, is patriotic.
All is not lost, fortunately. The NYTimes emphasizes what the Obama-fed stories yesterday did not: that the closure could take up to a year.
And probably much more than that, if the president-elect has any real concern for our homeland security.
Allahpundit sums it up: “This is a direct result, no doubt, of progressive consternation at his backtracking yesterday on his promise to close Gitmo in the first 100 days. A compromise, then: He’ll order it closed right out of the chute, just to let them know he’s serious, then take his sweet time on the logistics.”
Let’s hope.
See what others have said
Note from Michelle: This section is for comments from michellemalkin.com's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that I agree with or endorse any particular comment just because I let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with my terms of use may lose his or her posting privilege.
Trackbacks
- Newt Gingrich Announces his Candidacy for President « JoHNBRoDiGaNDoTCoM
- A national disgrace to be closed: Obama to sign Guantanamo order » A Couple Things » A couple things about politics, sports, travel, and other stuff.
- ButAsForMe! » “…they worried that the administration might yield to pressure to display its toughness in dealing with terrorism in its detention policies.
- Obama to reverse Bush executive orders - Political Wrinkles
- “Paradiso Guantánamo” and Beauty Queens… Much More Than Meets the Eye « Frugal Café Blog Zone
- Indefinite Detention: Obama’s Problem with Gitmo Terrorists « Frugal Café Blog Zone
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Categories: Gitmo
Power Line
» More From the East Anglia Archives
Founding Bloggers
» Did The New York Times Just Tell Glenn Reynolds To “STFU”?Doug Ross @ Journal
» BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!! Boston Globe Climate Beclownment SpectacularDoug Ross @ Journal
» 'Hope is fading fast' --- the T-ShirtRadio Equalizer
» Media Matters Admits Rush Didn't Make Key Racist RemarksDoug Ross @ Journal
» The CRU Climate Scam In 90 SecondsHot Air
» 3rd quarter GDP 2.8%, not 3.5%Mudville Gazette
» Threatswatch: US Embassy Denies Secret Eikenberry Talks With Taliban
Panic button is descript…
Those intell briefs do provide a “moment of pause” now don’t they?
I wonder what the reaction of the ACLU or Human Rights watch would be if they found out Obama was closing Gitmo and moving all of the prisoners to a new facity located across the street from their headquarters?
Toxic waste is never a problem until someone want to store it next to you.
I suggest these people watch “24″.
Then I say we give the terrorists specific directions to the NYT and ACLU headquarters when we release them.
You don’t want to fight terrorists? Fine.
But let’s make sure they don’t target innocent civilians. Let’s make sure they target YOU.
let em out, RIGHT NOW…on the streets of DC or New york!!
the boys at gitmo are just victims of racistsexisthomophobic policies of BOOOSH!!!
just so they stay in blue-devil areas…let them have some fun!!!
MM,
for the record I find allahpundit to be a clown.
You and he seem to have a katie/harry mutual admiration thing going.
At the risk of being banned ( a la a CJ LGF stunt ):
If socalled right wing bloggers are simply going to massage eachother’s ego they are no better than those they claim to be not aka the main stream media.
Ed’s post on pjtv hiring “joe” was interesting in that he and Riggio and others said exactly what mookie and I had said and both of us were called trolls, slammers, detractors etc…
Content over clowns isn’t that the entire basis of the rino exposure?
It’s really quite easy…
2 weeks to vacate personnel and supplies then one day to bomb it flat with it’s current residents still inside.
If they let them go, I hope only liberal family memebrs get killed because the rest of us wanted them to stay in jail.
I say we move them next to the NY Times building. Then, when one of the Muslim psychopaths (no not ‘insurgents’ or ‘rebels’ or ‘dissidents’) escape, we can watch Maureen Dowd, Paul Krugman and other fellow moonbats go running and screaming for their lives through mid-town Manhattan.
Hmmm. I like that. Where’s my popcorn…
None of those fools know what they are going to do until they do it.
I love it when political reality hits the fan.
We need to go back to being the Good Guys. And Good Guys don’t torture, and either treat enemies as criminals or POWS and afford them the appropriate rights.
It isn’t easy being the Good Guys. We will be more at risk and suffer more causalities. But principles are more important than people. This nation was founded on these basic principles, and we must defend them, even if that means lives. Our soldiers give their lives to defend them. And we must as well if that what it takes. We must not trade these values and principles for safety.
Would not surprise me if Obambi brought them here, dropped them off in the middle of New York city and offered them a license and free health insurance. Remember, according to socialist democrats those prisoners are the victims and we are the bad guys.
Obama: “Virtual reality! What a concept!”
I tend to agree with you. But Gitmo is hardly torture. In fact, the prisoners of Gitmo eat better than some people I know, and it’s a hell of a lot warmer there than it is here (currently 6º and dropping to something like -20º to -35º for the next few days).
We need to be the Good Guys, but that doesn’t mean being the Stupid Guys. Terrorists have made it clear they want to rule us, and kill many in the process, so pacifism and naive feel-good policies will only get us killed.
What are you talking about? Founded on what principles?
Even if it takes a year, he will close Gitmo. Obama is a radical leftist. We are doomed.
Michelle, according to the NY Times, the ACLU and Human Rights Watch, we must all take our medicine and allow ourselves to be murdered to show we “care” about terrorists’ well being.
Well… since these sloth-like idiots feel so strongly about their cause, these groups should bind their own hands, blindfold themselves and hand themselves over to the most heinous terrorists they can find. That way they can show they “feel” for the terrorists.
eagle,
we ain’t the bad guys PERIOD
no sale on your premise
I hate to say it, but I must agree. So let’s go back to the time when non-uniformed enemy combatants were simply shot on-sight on the battlefield! Works for me… No Gitmo. No trials. No ACLU screaming about their “rights.” Over and done. Sound good?
So when your child is ripped apart by a suicide bomber and dies slowly in your arms with his intestines spilt on in ground, will you still feel moraly superior? Will It be worth it to you when you have to figure out which body part goes to each body? How many people have to die or lose parts of themselves so YOU can feel moraly superior to the enemy?
Eagle, you have obviously never been responsible for the people who would end up being the casualties. It is wonderful to sit there and pontificate. It is another thing to write the parents of a young soldier and tell them YOU got them killed, so we could be seen as Good Guys.
Dream on.
Do you mean the principles that George Washington used on his own troops? The penalty for sodomy was DEATH.
I guess that democRAT god FDR forgot that when he shot those german spies about a month after capturing them…
but I hope the gitmo guys visit YOUR neighborhood!!! and pay you a visit!!
I hope its YOUR safety that is threatened. and your family!!
hope those liberal chickens come home to roost on the libs!!!
In time it will be spun to make BHO look good.It will become the right thing to leave them at Gitmo instead of a general population prison(for their safety)or sent to their home country(where they are sure to be tortured or worse.)The evil Bush bunch will be forgotten because the one has made the right humane call.
Tell that to the dead people and their families.
eaglehaslanded…I have never commented on a comment, but just to let you know, if being the good guy means bending over and getting it in the rear and let Americans die….then I will gladly wear the black hat and kick some you know what and yell I’m the bad guy and I am your wrost nightmare!!! You can be a warrior or get out of the way and let the warriors do the job!
Good Guys don’t lose.
Good Guys don’t listen to liberals whining on and on about their fantasies of what we do.
Good Guys don’t lose a queen to save a pawn.
Good Guys listen to enemy communications.
Good Guys take the war to the enemy.
Good Guys don’t apologize for winning.
Good Guys treat war as War and not a police issue.
I’m glad you’re as smart as your hero.
Let me point out a few things you apparently don’t think about before you spew this crap.
First off, we never *stopped* being the good guys, except when reported by liberals. According to those like yourself, we’re eeeeeevil unless we’re showing the “puppies and sunshine” treatment to people who wish us dead.
Torture…an interesting word to be throwing around. And one likely that, from your point of view and those that think like you…would include a lack of at LEAST basic cable and work-out facilities. Maybe i’m heartless, and really dont care how people view me for it..but if Achmed the Terrorist knows something we need to know to keep lives out of harms way…then I say have a nice time getting it out of him. I dont think the american people have a need to know every technique we use to extract information out of these people. Sometimes, you have to do things that are unpleasant, in order to get what you need. Personally, I dont care if they waterboard the crap out of those people. If it saves lives, then…well, so be it.
OK, so what part of this is a good idea? We should let people die simply because weak willed and spineless people such as yourself dont have the C.O. Jones to make these decisions? Is not the point of the brave men and women who GAVE their lives to protect us…to PROTECT us and NOT allow more deaths? Principles are NOT more important than the lives of the people who uphold them. That kind of thinking is ridiculous. Tell how your principles would have saved the 9/11 victims. Tell me how your principles would have prevented deaths in other terror attacks around the world? Hard to have principles when the people holding them are dead.
You’re going to have to explain what “basic principle” you’re talking about. But again, insinuating that “well, as long as we’ve got our head held high, it doesnt matter if people die”. The ENTIRE point of what we have done, and continue to do is, so that people do NOT, in fact, continue to die.
I somehow get the feeling that this statement doesnt include you, your family, your friends, or anyone else YOU know…but its ok for the rest of us. If thats not the case, then i’ll let you correct me and let me know that you’re absolutely OK with someone coming into your neighborhood and killing everyone there. Lets see how you handle that.
The principles we already possess are ones that -promote- safety. The things you’re suggesting would lower both the principles we already hold dear as a nation, AND the safety of all those involved. Your post makes little sense in this light.
I’m not even sure what kind of kool aid you have to drink to believe that its ok for thousands to die, for soliders to give their lives for what in your world passes as no good reason, and for those around you to perish…just so you dont have to think about someone having WATER poured on their face. You, and people like you…who have no concern for your own countrymen and friends, and who seek to try and talk your way out of situations with people who actively and definitively seek our destruction…demonstrate for me clearly why our country is getting screwed right now.
I sleep safely in my bed at night *because* of the principles we as a nation hold dear to, and rest easy because we’re safer as a result. It’s unfortunate you dont understand that, and are willing to let innocent people die, all because you dont have the stomach to do what’s needed.
And as one last point…these terrorists are not afforded, nor by law is it required, to follow Geneva protocol when dealing with them. I would specifically point out the 3rd Geneva Convention, Article 4. Those in Gitmo do not fall under the designation of recieving the benefits of the Convention, because they do not fit the criteria. If i’ve misread that or misinterpreted, i’m open to instruction on the matter. But the people detained are not part of any organized army, do not bear arms openly, do not wear a visible, recognized insignia, and do not conduct themselves in accordance with the laws of war.
Good morning bansharia. Did you say something?
Your Messiah is backtracking, aka: lying.
Never heard of FDR, Woodrow Wilson did you? I could give you a couple of really ugly examples but Liberals live in their myths.
Appropriate.
Do you even know what that word means?
It’s open ended. Rights defined by whom ? The constitution, military law or international pressure.
If you extend the logic…
Abu Ghraib – military is accused of mistreating prisoners (putting it mildly).
Gitmo – military is accused of mistreating prisoners (again, an understatement).
Result: Military may not take prisoners. If you can’t do what’s right, then humans tend to do what will cause them the least amount of concern.
It seems to me that all those who claim that the enemy deserves protections under the Geneva Convention truly need to read and understand the agreement. Unlike our Constitution, it is not subject to anyone’s interpretation.
This post was not meant to besmirch our brave soldiers, just the idiots who constantly criticize them yet do not understand what they do or why.
Bravo, abstractmind. Bravo!
Hey eagle.
Your living in a fantasy world. Our military exist to protect you and I. They are sometimes called upon to kill people and break things. Prisoners of wars are not citizens of our sovereign country. They are subject to military law. Get rid of our military and see what happens to your freedoms.
I know this may be a harsh reality, but the world is a dangerous place and the weak are soon destroyed.
Since I was curious, i started doing some additional research, but I want to wait out the thread a little bit to see if anyone else comes up with what I did.
EAGLEHASLANDED seems to have bought into the “crap” that stressful interrogation techniques like waterboarding are real torture. It was used 3 times to prevent followup attacks being planned for our country–it saved many of our lives.
***
Watch Ralph Peter’s BURIED IN THE SAND video on Saddam Hussein’s real torture techniques used in his Iraq. Or watch videos of HAMAS beating people with iron rebar, shooting them in the knees and joints, and throwing them off a building in Gaza. You can recognize real torture when you see it. Panties on the head at Abu Gharib prison and reasonably humane treatment in Gitmo do not count.
***
Remember those people jumping to their deaths from the World Trade Center towers rather than burning to death. This is a real war we are in–there is no prize for second place. Real torture is always used by our enemies on us. President Bush did the best it could to save us. Let’s see how President Obama’s thingy works out.
***
“TOUCHY-FEELEY” ACTIONS GET US KILLED!
***
John Bibb
Whats going to happen when the world figures out that our leader is not a reformed ex-coke dealing street hood from the ghetto – but instead our President is Carlton Banks from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air trying to get over his white guilt?
I would have voted for Carlton Banks.
Torture doesn’t work, except to make people hate us more:
http://www.military.com/news/article/exinterrogator-torture-doesnt–work.html
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/03/10/fbi-interrogator-tor.html
And:
This is exactly what Hamas is saying, and Israel, and everybody who’s ever fought a war.
Everybody thinks they’re the good guys. It’s actions that tell them apart.
blah blah blah. Everyone can wake up every morning and try to justify their existence.
The military exists for one reason and only one reason – to implement the political will of the prevailing power by the threat of death. And if the threat of death does not deter the opposing power, then the military kills the opposing power.
Dont get caught up in good guy vs bad guy. Thats Hollywood not reality.
Easy to be “morally superior” when you know that better people than you are willing to kill, and die, to protect your right to spew drivel.
So you’re saying if I tied you to a post and started working on your teeth with a file, you wouldn’t tell me what I want to know?
Of course not. I’d tell you want you wanted to hear to make you stop. Then my friends would grab you or your friends and torture and/or kill you. Then you’ll grab a few more of my friends….
But don’t listen to me, just listen to the people that have actually tried it. It doesn’t work other than from a revenge/punishment standpoint.
We need to set the example if we want to reclaim our position as the moral authority in the world. To to that, we must be above reproach or we have no credibility.
Yes, he would…but he wouldn’t like you very much. And isn’t that what’s most important?
/sarc
If I think for a minute that you’re lying to me, well…
translation: we need to let the rest of the world kill us at will. and even subsidize those who would murder us, like the palestinians!! the europeans will love us then! and it really comes down to what the french think about us that matters!
I just hope the chickens come home to roost on the blue-devils….
On January 13th, 2009 at 10:25 am, FamilyMan said:
eaglehaslanded said:
But principles are more important than people. This nation was founded on these basic principles
Do you mean the principles that George Washington used on his own troops? The penalty for sodomy was DEATH.
not only death, but death by mumba!
http://www.notellmotel.org/poem_single.php?id=15_0_1_0
we didn’t torture the north vietnamese POWS, but they tortured ours..same for the japanese, the north koreans..
yeah its worked wonders!!
you must be in a great deal of pain, such stupidity has to hurt…
When people are trying to kill you killing them is the best answer. If they are trying to kill me on the 9th degree of hate or the 10th degree of hate makes little difference to the bomber or bombee (that would be us).
Abu Ghraib was indeed a breakdown of military order and careers lost.
The “torture” at Gitmo does not impress. But we shall see what a President Obama does. As much as I do not like nor trust the man this we do know: He can not let the mohammedans attack us at will and survive politically. Gitmo gone? Waterboarding gone? We shall see.
Iran has already tweaked his nose and set hard conditions for negotiations. Just weeks before his inauguration Hamas stepped up their attacks to provoke Israel. The magic hits reality.
Popcorn?
——————————————————————————–
Col. Jessep: Son, we live in a world that has walls and those walls need to be guarded by men with guns. Who’s gonna do it? You? You, Lieutenant Weinberg? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago and curse the Marines; you have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that Santiago’s death, while tragic, probably saved lives and that my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don’t want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use then as the backbone of a life trying to defend something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said “thank you,” and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest that you pick up a weapon and stand a post. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you are entitled to.
So, you’re ready to tell Da One that he should back off his gun control fantasies so we can defend ourselves?
ECS
Irony is lost on you. Nicholson’s character was exposed as a psycho and not one of the “Few Good Men”. He was arrested and dragged from the courtroom screaming like a lunatic.
PS Aaron Sorkin (West Wing) wrote that speech.
Read what the experts are saying again. Torture increases the quantity of people that hate us. It’s a recruiting tool for the enemy. And we abandon the moral high ground.
It’s un-American. Period.
No, eaglehascrashedandburned, that’s not what Hamas is saying. Hamas has been saying “exterminate the Jews”. They’re saying it now. They’ll keep saying it as long as enablers lie you let them get away with it.
I will also point out that Israel is the Good Guys.
Everybody who’s ever fought a war don’t even say half the things on my all-too-short list.
Then why don’t I see you ever criticizing Hamas for deliberately targeting women and children?
I guess Saddam’s torture chambers and rape rooms were ok with you because you only started complaining when we shut them down.
You remind me of the guy whos wife is being raped and you tell her “Don’t worry, honey. Just lay back and enjoy it.”
so Osama will LOVE us if we’d only stop ‘torturing’ his men…right.
first, we don’t ‘toture’ anyone…you’re a liar, and an idiot.
Nah!!! He’ll just rename it! It’ll become Club Musidun, and tell the moonbats he closed Gitmo!
I think each of the moonbats should be required to adopt a terrorist so that each
terroristpoor misunderstood detainee can see the American way of life.Then maybe the
terroristdetainee kills them and/or their families we can send them back to their homeland since in reality they have rid us of these annoying moonbats.Maybe we should try the gitmo detainees in a court of law and lock them up for life or execute them if proven guilty.
Maybe we should have arrested the Japanese airmen that bombed Pearl Harbor on 7 Dec 1941 and tried them in a court of law then locked them up for life or executed them if they were proven guilty.
ahhhhhh, good one!
And here we go and celebrate D-Day by honoring those who died, when instead it should be an international day of protest where the world opposes American agression against sovereign German soil.
The Nazis didnt initially attack us in the United States, so why should we have invaded Europe?
The ones captured were POWs and afforded those rights. The ones that were considered criminals were tried and many executed:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Military_Tribunal_for_the_Far_East