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06-10-07, 02:02 PM #1
Powell: Close Guantanamo Now, Restore Habeas (video)
This morning on NBC’s Meet the Press, Gen. Colin Powell strongly condemned the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, calling it “a major problem for America’s perception” and charging, “if it was up to me, I would close Guantanamo — not tomorrow, this afternoon.”
He also called for an end to the military commission system the Bush administration has created to try Guantanamo detainees. “I would simply move them to the United States and put them into our federal legal system,” Powell said. He scoffed at criticism that the detainees would have access to lawyers and the writ of habeas corpus: “So what? Let them. Isn’t that what our system’s all about?”
“[E]very morning I pick up a paper and some authoritarian figure, some person somewhere, is using Guantanamo to hide their own misdeeds,” Powell said. “[W]e have shaken the belief that the world had in America’s justice system by keeping a place like Guantanamo open… We don’t need it, and it’s causing us far more damage than any good we get for it.”
Watch it:
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Powell also sounded off on conservatives, including Vice President Cheney, who oppose diplomacy with Syria and Iran, calling their view “short-sighted.” Powell endorsed direct talks “not to solve a particular problem or crisis of the moment or the day, but just to have dialogue with people who are involved in this region in so many ways.”
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Transcript:POWELL: But in this arc, which is centered now in Iraq, we have serious difficulties. Serious difficulties that have to be resolved, one, by getting this civil war resolved, and it’s going to take the Iraqis to do that. Two, I believe we should be talking to all of Iraq’s neighbors. I think we should be talking to Iran, we should be talking to Syria, not to solve a particular problem or crisis of the moment or the day, but just to have dialogue with people who are involved in this region in so many ways. And so I think it is short-sighted not to talk to Syria and Iran and everybody else in the region, and not just for the purpose of making a demand on them, and “I’ll only talk to you if you meet the demand I want to talk to you about.” That’s not the way to have a dialogue in my judgment.
RUSSERT: Guantanamo. Torture. When John McCain was seeking ways to deal with the issue of torture, you wrote him a letter and said this: “The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism.”
POWELL: Right.
RUSSERT: What do you mean?
POWELL: They are. Guantanamo has become a major, a major problem for America’s perception — as it’s seen, the way the world perceives America. And if it was up to me, I would close Guantanamo — not tomorrow, this afternoon. I’d close it. And I’d not let any of those people go. I would simply move them to the United States and put them into our federal legal system. The concern was, well, then they’ll have access to lawyers, then they’ll have access to writs of habeas corpus. So what? Let them. Isn’t that what our system’s all about? And by the way, America, unfortunately, has too many people in jail, all of whom had lawyers and access to writs of habeas corpus. And so we can handle bad people in our system. And so I would get rid of Guantanamo and I’d get rid of the military commissions system, and use established procedures in federal law or in the manual for courts martial. I would do that because it’s more equatable and it’s more understandable in constitutional terms. But I’d also do it because every morning I pick up a paper and some authoritarian figure, some person somewhere, is using Guantanamo to hide their own misdeeds. So essentially we have shaken the belief that the world had in America’s justice system by keeping a place like Guantanamo open and creating things like the military commission. We don’t need it, and it’s causing us far more damage than any good we get for it. But remember what I started this discussion saying, don’t let any of them go. Put them in a different system, a system that is experienced, that knows how to handle people like this.
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/10/powell-gitmo/
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06-12-07, 10:55 AM #2
Huckabee: Most U.S. Prisoners Would ‘Love Gitmo’
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell condemned the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay yesterday, calling it “a major problem for America’s perception” and charging, “if it was up to me, I would close Guantanamo — not tomorrow, this afternoon.”
Later, on CNN’s Late Edition, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) expressed his disagreement with Powell about closing Guantanamo, saying “most of our prisoners would love to be in a facility more like Guantanamo and less like the state prisons that people are in in the United States.”
Pressed by host Wolf Blitzer to address the fact that “detainees are being held, by and large, without charges, without any evidence,” which is “causing a smear on the U.S. reputation,” Huckabee said it didn’t matter because hypothetically, “if we let somebody out” they could “come and fly an airliner into one of our skyscrapers.” Watch it:
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/11/huckabee-gitmo/
Huckabee’s fearmongering over the prospect of closing Guantanamo is ignorant of the facts. Critics of the current military commission system are not arguing we should let the prisoners go. Instead, the criticism is aimed at creating a constitutional legal system that would provide for the conviction of terrorists.
The lawless environment at Guantanamo has dangerously tarnished the reputation of the United States abroad. As Powell noted, bad actors and “authoritarian figures” around the world are “using Guantanamo to hide their own misdeeds.”
The Center for American Progress has urged shifting detainee operations to Fort Leavenworth, KS, and prosecuting the remaining detainees in general courts-martial under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
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Transcript:BLITZER: Let’s talk a little bit about what the former secretary of state General Colin Powell said earlier today on “Meet the Press” when asked about the status of the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, whether suspected terrorists should be housed there. Listen to what General Powell said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN POWELL: If it was up to me, I would close Guantanamo. Not tomorrow, but this afternoon. Every morning I pick up a paper and some authoritarian figure, some person somewhere is using Guantanamo to hide their own misdeeds. And so essentially, we have shaken the belief that the world had in America’s justice system by keeping a place like Guantanamo open.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Governor Huckabee, you agree with Secretary Powell?
HUCKABEE: I know it’s become a symbol of what’s wrong. I visited Guantanamo just about a year ago. My sense was, because I visited every single prison in the Arkansas prison system, and I can tell you most of our prisoners would love to be in a facility more like Guantanamo and less like the state prisons that people are in in the United States.
It’s more symbolic than it is a substantive issue, because people perceive of mistreatment when, in fact, there are extraordinary means being taken to make sure these detainees are being given, really, every consideration.
BLITZER: But the argument isn’t so much the physical condition as to the legal system that they face. These suspected terrorists, these detainees are being held, by and large, without charges, without any evidence. They’re just being kept there indefinitely. And that’s causing a smear on the U.S. reputation.
HUCKABEE: I understand that. But I’ll tell you, if we let somebody out and it turns out that they come and fly an airliner into one of our skyscrapers, we’re going to be asking, how come we didn’t stop them? We had them detained.
There’s not a perfect solution. The perfect solution is to get people to quit being terrorists. And that’s not something we can easily control. If we’re going to make a mistake right now, let’s make it on the side of protecting the American people. That’s the number one role and responsibility that an American president has right now.
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06-12-07, 01:29 PM #3
Yada, yada, yada...we already know that the lefties think all the Guantanamo detainees are innocent victims of a cruel US conspiracy.
So, let's just let them all go. Give them a 1st Class ticket to the destination of their choice (Iran, Syria, Palestine, etc.)
Maybe we'll be fortunate....when these crazies crash another jet in America, hopefully only "lefties" will be killed.
drumcorpssnare
...or maybe the whiners will settle for just closing the prison. Doesn't mean they have to let the prisoners out of their cells before we walk away, and lock the front gate!
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06-12-07, 01:44 PM #4
Mr. Huckabee has taken a rather simplistic approach to a very complex issue.
The republicans are once again showing how shallow they are when it comes to terms regarding Foreign Policy.
I agree with Mr Powell, close GTMO and send the detainees to US prisons who are surely better equipped to deal with prisoners. These are not even POW's (hence the name detainee).
Clearly the majority of Americans want terrorists stopped even by war if necessary (not like the UN-necessary war in Iraq). No American wants the USA to be attacked. Holding these detainees is making people around the world more hostile to the actions of the USA (creating more terrorists).
Huckabee reminds me of the other republican simpleton from Ark that stated we need another attack on American soil. And he is the republican leader (shaking head)
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06-13-07, 02:49 AM #5Originally Posted by jetdawgg
which is it.
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06-13-07, 08:55 AM #6
How about giving a fair trial and a fair chance at legal assistance for starters?
Some of those individuals are not guilty at all.
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06-13-07, 10:09 AM #7Originally Posted by drumcorpssnare
Seriously... how can people who have sworn to protect and defend the constitution of the United States turn a blind eye when it is clearly being ****ed on?
As for doing away with "lefties": since (from what I've read here) anything to the left of Bill O'Reilley is a tree-hugging hippie to most of you, you'd only be left with about 10 people.
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06-13-07, 10:23 AM #8Originally Posted by erased
A lot of folks can't even see that most people don't burn flags
or spit on veterans. Yet that is what you will see presented as the norm on FOX
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06-14-07, 09:31 AM #9
US can't hold civilians indefinitely
Bush cannot order the indefinite military detention of a Qatari man accused of being an al-Qaeda agent, a US appeals court has ruled.Mr Marri, indefinately detained for four years in a US prison
Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, the only person being held on US soil as an "enemy combatant", was seized three months after the 9/11 terror attacks.
He has been held without charge in a navy prison for almost four years.
The ruling is seen as a setback for the Bush administration over its policies on the detention of so-called terror suspects.
Marri, who entered the US legally on September 10, 2001 to study at a US university, was arrested in December that year following investigations into the 9/11 attacks.
A civilian court in Illinois charged him with offenses including credit card fraud and lying to FBI agents.
While the criminal proceedings were progressing, he was transferred on the orders of the president to the military authorities, who have held him in South Carolina since 2003.
However, the appeals court in Virginia ruled on Monday that Marri has habeus corpus rights, entitling him to challenge his detention in court, and has ordered his release from military custody.
"To sanction such presidential authority to order the military to seize and indefinitely detain civilians, even if the president calls them 'enemy combatants', would have disastrous consequences for the constitution, and the country," the court opinion said.
The judges stated Marri could face civilian criminal charges or be deported but the government cannot subject him to indefinite military detention.
The government had urged the court to reject Marri's case on the grounds that the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which strips detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, of their habeus corpus rights, applied also to him.
Under that law, detainees must be judged by a military tribunal before they can challenge their detention in a civil court.
It is not yet clear whether the appeals court's decision will have implications for detainees held at Guantanamo Bay.
It comes a week after military judges threw out charges against two of those detained there because military authorities had failed to designate the men as "unlawful" enemy combatants.
FBA/BGH
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id...tionid=3510203
Think this is making friends around the globe?
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06-14-07, 12:33 PM #10
The freakin' Libs need to quit beating around the bush and just admit it...
"These poor innocent victims need to be released....it's not their fault they're terrorist jihadists. It's George Bush's fault!"
That's pretty much what the left wants, and how they see things.
And then, when these murdering animals re-group and reorganize...and topple the Transamerica building, the Space Needle, Sears Tower, the St. Louis Arch, the Alamo, and the Statue of Liberty....all on the same day...these Lefty idiots will claim, "But we didn't know! It's not our fault! It's Bush's fault!!!"
And, as far as Constitutional rights go...those rights are, or "should be" for American citizens, not some rag-headed crazy from Syria or Arabia! Jeez!!!
drumcorpssnare
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06-14-07, 02:23 PM #11Originally Posted by jetdawgg
Did you mean the necessary United Nations War...???
You should be more clear on these things JET...
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06-14-07, 02:54 PM #12Originally Posted by drumcorpssnare
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06-14-07, 04:05 PM #13
'Libs" don't want the Sears Tower destroyed or any of the other public stations that you named.
Most Americans want justice for those in captivity. Why should we be on par with barbaric nations like Iran when it comes to prisoner policy. Moreover, Iran just disgraced us by letting the Brits go a few months ago.
This posturing by the admin is creating more terrorists for us to fight. There is no way on earth to fight that many people without destroying the rest of humanity.
That is not an answer in my book. Diplomacy is required here and elsewhere to alleviate the problems. Sabre rattling has run it's course.
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06-14-07, 04:10 PM #14Originally Posted by erased
Originally Posted by erased
Do you really think that everyone that thinks your position on this issue is hogwash gets that opinion from talk radio... and That all that tune into talk radio just do so as mind numbed robots seeking an opinion.. You need to stop and have a little reality check here.. I mean here you are claiming to be this brilliant all encompassing thinker.. and BAM there ya go throwing all those that don't see things your way right into one big group of mind numbed robots... Now I admit to being guilty of that from time to time...
But damnit.. You are talking about a policy that has been established in damn near every war in every country since the institution of war was dreamed up..
You tell me MR smarty pants. just how the Japs ended up in ...humm what was the word then... concentration.. no that was the Germans.. Gulags.. No.. That was the Russians.. Ummm Maybe the word was relocation .. or detention centers... No now I remember.. It was internment camps ......
The best historical parallel to "Gitmo" was the civil War... That was when some 13,000 or so ANTI WAR democrats were locked up.. There was this huge ordeal about the destruction of the constitution and suspension of habeas rights... Blah Blah Blah...
Is that the Knowledge you are suggesting that I am terrified of?
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06-14-07, 04:11 PM #15
Any of you lefties have an empty room at your place??? - We'll just bring those turds from Gitmo and let them stay at your place. See how ****ing fast you can start pulling a jane fonda kerry and start flip-flopping!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You guys give me a pain right between my back pockets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SEMPER FI,
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