WASHINGTON, June 22, 2007

U.S. May Move Detainees To Afghan Prison

News Of Transfer Of Some Guantanamo Prisoners Comes Amid Criticism Of Tribunals By Army Lawyer

  • The sun rises over the razor-wired detention compound at Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, Cuba, in this Dec. 8, 2006, file photo. The Bush administration reportedly is seeking to move some inmates being held at Guantanamo to a facility being built in Afghanistan. Photo

    The sun rises over the razor-wired detention compound at Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, Cuba, in this Dec. 8, 2006, file photo. The Bush administration reportedly is seeking to move some inmates being held at Guantanamo to a facility being built in Afghanistan.  (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

  • Interactive Gitmo Tribunals

    Detainees on trial, photos and a history of the naval base.

(CBS/AP)  The United States is helping build a prison in Afghanistan to take some prisoners now at Guantanamo Bay, but the White House said Friday that it's not meant as an alternative to the detainee facility in Cuba.

The news comes the same day as the release of an affadavit by an Army lawyer criticizing the evidence used by military tribunals to determine whether detainees will continue to be held.

The Bush administration has said it wants to close Guantanamo Bay and move terror suspects to prisons elsewhere. Senior officials have told The Associated Press a consensus is building among the president's top advisers on how to do it.

The administration is looking to resolve the issue swiftly, White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino told reporters Friday, although she said there's no deadline set.

"Everybody is working towards the goal to meet what the president has asked them to do, which is to do it as soon as possible," she said of shuttering the facility.

A meeting of top officials on Guantanamo was planned for Friday but it was called off when word leaked.

Even so, Perino said, the president remains committed to shutting down the jail for suspected terrorists, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Knoller. But, Perino added, "Nothing is imminent."

"America does not have any intention of being the world's jailer," Perino said. She noted that the United States has announced plans to release about 80 of some 375 detainees, and hopes to transfer several dozen Afghans back to Afghanistan in the near future.

The Pentagon announced Friday that a new detainee had been transferred to the center, but added it was doing its best to reduce the population there, now at the lowest point in its five-year history.

That word came the same day as new criticism of the military tribunals held at Guantanamo Bay was raised, this time by an Army officer with a key role in the hearings.

In an affidavit released Friday, Lt. Col. Stephen Abraham, a 26-year veteran of military intelligence who is an Army reserve officer and a California lawyer, says the tribunals relied on vague and incomplete intelligence and were pressured to declare detainees "enemy combatants," often without any specific evidence.

Abraham said military prosecutors were provided with only "generic" material that didn't hold up to the most basic legal challenges.

Despite repeated requests, intelligence agencies arbitrarily refused to provide specific information that could have helped either side in the tribunals, according to Abraham, who said he served as a main liaison between the Combat Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) and those intelligence agencies.

"What were purported to be specific statements of fact lacked even the most fundamental earmarks of objectively credible evidence," Abraham said in the affidavit, filed in a Washington appeals court on behalf of a Kuwaiti detainee, Fawzi al-Odah, who is challenging his classification as an "enemy combatant."

Abraham "bravely" agreed to provide the affidavit when defense lawyers contacted him, said al-Odah attorney David Cynamon.

"It proves what we all suspected, which is that the CSRTs were a complete sham," he said.

At the White House, Perino said Mr. Bush has directed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to work with her counterparts around the world to try to repatriate detainees to their home countries, make sure they are held safely and treated humanely and that they are not allowed to perpetrate acts of terrorism.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Friday that Rice continues to work to achieve that goal while she and others in the administration struggle with how to address security concerns that could result from closing Guantanamo.

"The president has said he would like nothing better than at some point to shut down Guantanamo Bay, but there are a number of steps that need to be taken between here and that stated objective and they are tough issues," McCormack said. "There are people down at Guantanamo Bay who are very, very dangerous and you can't just let them walk free."

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman noted Defense Secretary Robert Gates supports closing the facility.

"I think that's the goal of everybody in the administration and probably most Americans — that we would rather not have to have a place like Guantanamo," he said. "But the fact remains that there are dangerous people out there that are being picked up on the battlefield that have vowed to return to the fight if released and individuals that have committed war crimes and should be held accountable for their actions."

The Pentagon announced the transfer to the center of Haroon al-Afghani, an alleged terrorist captured in the Afghan province of Nangarhar who is suspected of serving as a courier for al Qaeda leadership and commanding multiple cells of the Hezb-e-Islami militant faction.

The Guantanamo Bay prison, set up in 2002 to house terror suspects captured in military operations, mostly in Afghanistan, has been a flashpoint for criticism of the Bush administration at home and abroad.

Human rights advocates and foreign leaders have repeatedly called for its shutdown, and the prison is regarded by critics as proof of U.S. double standards on fundamental freedoms in the war on terrorism.

Some of the detainees have come from countries that are U.S. allies, including Britain, Saudi Arabia and Australia. Each of those governments raised complaints about the conditions or duration of detentions, or about the possibility that detainees might face death sentences.

A proposal gaining traction among Mr. Bush's top national security advisers would have some of the most dangerous suspects at Guantanamo transferred to one or more Defense Department facilities, including the maximum-security military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., officials say.

White House spokeswoman Perino said the Friday gathering to discuss the issue was canceled because it was determined that a "meeting wasn't necessary at this time."

"There was going to be a meeting in which Guantanamo detainee issues were discussed today, but that has been taken off the schedule," she said. "That doesn't mean that people don't continue to work on what the president has asked them to do, which is work towards getting that facility closed."

Expected to consult soon, according to the officials, are Rice, Gates, Vice President Dick Cheney, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff, National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace.

The move is opposed by Cheney's office and the Justice Department, which argue that transferring prisoners to U.S. soil would give them undeserved rights and pose a threat to the United States.

But pressure on the administration to shut the facility has been mounting in recent months with a series of legal setbacks and some in Congress threatening to mandate it. The pressure has given advocates of closure some leverage in intense internal debate, the officials said.


© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Video and Galleries from U.S.

Add a Comment See all 185 Comments
by barbaraf4 June 21, 2007 7:07 PM PDT
The prisoners being held at Guantanamo should never have left the Middle East in the first place. The problem with bringing them here is that you have to take care of them - forever. They should have been imprisoned in Iraq. Then left to the descretion of the Iraqi people when we leave - I figure half will be killed and half will go home to their families.
Reply to this comment
by j-whitman June 21, 2007 8:01 PM PDT
It's about damm time,, I've been screeming about this when they 1st started talking about creating it,,, It's embarrassed our nation, & weakened our National Security.

Let's made sure it is closed down instad of relocating it to Afaganistan... Another Bush lie, He & Gonzales was responsible for keeping it open for so long.
Reply to this comment
by ubrew12 June 21, 2007 8:32 PM PDT
"The prisoners being held at Guantanamo should [have been]... left to the descretion of the Iraqi people" Posted by barbaraf4 at 07:07 PM : Jun 21, 2007
They were Taliban and Al-Qaida captured in Afghanistan after 9-11, mostly Afghans, Saudis, Egyptians, Pakistanis. Why leave them in Iraq? Oh, I forgot, people like you figure them for the same place...
Reply to this comment
by bareemperor June 21, 2007 8:46 PM PDT
Gitmo is the biggest Bu$h failure ever, and he has failed at pretty much everything he has touched.
Torture and humiliation of unlucky saps sold into slavery by unscrupilous warlords...
We have been Bu$hed!
Dubya may wish to wash his hands of the blood of fascism, but the stains will stay with him through history.
Reply to this comment
by feelfree1 June 21, 2007 9:03 PM PDT
BareEmperor,

Re: "Gitmo is the biggest Bu$h failure ever"

It doesn't have to be. This would be an excellent location for use in detaining, trying, and sentencing the Bush regime and their accomplices, for treason, crimes against humanity, Contitutional breaches, and war crimes.
Reply to this comment
by feelfree1 June 21, 2007 9:12 PM PDT

Re: "Officials familiar with the agenda of Friday's meeting said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff, National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Peter Pace and Vice President *** Cheney are likely to attend."

This would make an excellent initial transfer of candidates for the converted Guantanimo. This crew is enough to keep an army of judges and attorneys busy for a long time.
Reply to this comment
by walt1944-2009 June 21, 2007 9:15 PM PDT
I am thinking that Emperor Bush is just paying this all "lip service" to show that he is a "humanitarian"; just about as "humanitarian" as Stalin and Pol Pot! I bet he never closes Gitmo and he might even expand it for the day when he takes over the government and sends all those Congressmen and women there who "crossed him". If the past 6 years has taught anybody anything, it's that our great leader holds a grudge and collects on that grudge, no matter who gets hurt. Just look at Valerie Plame and her husband!

In short, I wouldn't expect any miracles out of the White House and can only expect things to get worse.

It's time to salute "der Furher"!

SIG HEIL, BUSH!!
Reply to this comment
by producer123 June 21, 2007 9:54 PM PDT
What is so bad about any of your lives that you are so unhappy with this country?
Open your eyes and start appreciating what you have as a citizen of the greatest country in the world and maybe you wouldn't be so angry and unhappy all the time.
Reply to this comment
by cdfoxtrot June 21, 2007 11:56 PM PDT
Open your eyes and start appreciating what you have as a citizen of the greatest country in the world and maybe you wouldn't be so angry and unhappy all the time.
Posted by producer123 at 09:54 PM : Jun 21, 2007

Thinking America is the greatest country on earth shows how little you know of the outside world. This is the kind of arrogance that makes people dislike the US and prevents people like you from seeing the truth. Other countries have the capability of making war on governments they don't like, or don't agree with, but they don't. Other countries have a political system that doesn't require you to be a zillionaire to run for office.
What's so "great" about that??

Reply to this comment
by casper10x June 22, 2007 2:08 AM PDT
To Whitman ( stan ?) : For the last few days humanitarian efforts of the Israeli and their hospitals have saved those Fatah terrorists who have been in the tunnel , with Hamas ready to cut their throat.

Where do they turn ? How ironic.
Reply to this comment
by CBSTV June 22, 2007 3:03 AM PDT
I am amused how the Bush administration refers to the Guantanamo prisoners as "detainees." That is like referring to a street gang as a club.

... Oh, these guys aren't prisoners or charged with any crimes. We're just holding onto them for a while ... you know, detaining them ... holding them gingerly by their wrists. It's all very cordial.

Now, run along and tend to your personal life. There's nothing to see here.
Reply to this comment
by jasonking4 June 22, 2007 3:41 AM PDT
Just in case you were in any doubt, Gitmo is about as big as a disaster for US foreign relations as could be. The world outside sees Gitmo and nothing but a torturer's haven were unspeakable deeds are performed on prisoners who have had their human rights terminated.

The world wants (requires) due process for these people so at the very least those men and children (yes there are children there) who are innocent can be repatriated, and those who are guilty can feel the full force of the law.

Failure to do this has resulted in the tables being turned, crass hipocrac by the White House, who in claiming they were protecting American freedoms were in actual fact destroying them.

We in the outside world see this very clearly. What we don't understand is why don't you?
Reply to this comment
by tmittelstaed June 22, 2007 5:38 AM PDT
Now that we got Republican candidates trying to get traction for the next election, and we got Castro retired, Guantanamo is a liability. Go figure.
Reply to this comment
by brianbwb-2009 June 22, 2007 5:48 AM PDT
to cdfoxtrot

Not to mention, several other countries have a higher standard of living, better education and health care systems, better public transport and lower crime rate. Check the stats for Singapore, for example.
Reply to this comment
by bluestardad June 22, 2007 6:29 AM PDT
BUSH ADMINISTRATION IS GOING TO CLEAN UP EVIDENCE OF THEIR CRIMES THEY PERFORMED WHILE IN OFFICE!
Reply to this comment
by jegibbons June 22, 2007 7:18 AM PDT
==The world outside sees Gitmo nothing but a torturer's haven where unspeakable deeds are performed on prisoners==

How many beheadings? How many limbs were sawed off? Anyone get fed into a shredder? How about a discreet touch up with a blow torch or an electrical drill? Electrical charges to the genitals? ALL DOCUMENTED TORTURES USED BY THIS HEINOUS PERVERTED ISLAMO FACIST ENEMY.

Sleep depravation,being forced to listen to loud Rap Music hardly qualifies as torture. Even WATER BOARDING is humane when compared to a blowtorch.

THE TROUBLE WITH LIBERALS is they are fast and loose with the truth. Never allow the facts to get in the way of the truth.
THE TRUTH IS TORTURE DOESN'T WORK!

Promulgating a smoke screen defense for our enemies is as UNAMERICAN as any of those imagined sins, you think (DON"T KNOW) were committed at GITMO.

MORON! We are at WAR. The waco LIBERAL PRESS says it. So it MUST be TRUE, RIGHT?
You keep drinking the COOL AID.
We'll fight the bad guys.
Reply to this comment
by gunnerv1 June 22, 2007 8:01 AM PDT
I hope tey never close the place! They are luckey they wern't shot in the first place. Armed and not in anykind of Military Uniform will automatically get you shot in anyother war.
Reply to this comment
by rhw698-2009 June 22, 2007 8:11 AM PDT
I'M GLAD WE HAVE GITMO ! SEND THE BAD GUYS THERE, NO RIGHTS, NO WOTNESSES, NO LAWYERS. JUST THE BAD GUYS, THE GOOD GUYS, SOME ELECTRICAL WIRING AND SOME WATER.........................*** THAT WAS EASY.
TAKE ONE BAD GUY, APPLY WIRING TO TESTICLES, FLIP THE SWITCH, NOW ASK A QUESTION WHILE KEEPING YOUR FINGER ON THE SWITCH.............WOW, YOU GET AN ANSWER !
KEEP ASKING, KEEP FLIPPING THE SWITCH ONCE IN A WHILE..............TAAAAAA DAAAAAAAAAA , MAGICALLY TRUTH COMES SPILLING OUT OF THE BAD GUY !
NO MORE QUESTIONS......OK, TAKE BAD GUY TO BOAT, TAKE HIM OUT TO SEA, WRAP CHAIN AROUND ANKLES AND SHOOT HIS ***, PUSH SCUM BAG OVERBOARD.
TERRORIST PROBLEM SOLVED !
Reply to this comment
by mudrose-2009 June 22, 2007 8:34 AM PDT
BUSH ADMINISTRATION IS GOING TO CLEAN UP EVIDENCE OF THEIR CRIMES THEY PERFORMED WHILE IN OFFICE!
Posted by bluestardad

I think that Bush and Company should release these bastardos in the general population, preferrably where you live. This way we can see first-hand whether the administration is cleaning up it's evidence. Sounds good to me? Rightin your neighborhood.

Or we can send them back into the arena of Afghanistan over the mountains while we are in hot pursuit and just kill them. No court, no trial, no rights to our court system. This especially works for me. Or we can send them back to their countries of origin where they can lope off their heads. Much more merciful.

Do you like any of the above? I do.
Reply to this comment
by mudrose-2009 June 22, 2007 8:39 AM PDT
MORON! We are at WAR. The waco LIBERAL PRESS says it. So it MUST be TRUE, RIGHT?
You keep drinking the COOL AID.
We'll fight the bad guys.
Posted by JEGibbons

These people are muslim sympathizers. That's why they hate Bush so very much. If you aren't with them you are against them. You are supposedly a neocon (which is a code word for Jew). Then you have the leftwing numbnuts who like Boxer and Billary the two-headed Clintoid want to stiffle Talk Radio because they tell it like it is. Why would you want such freedom of speech? Right? Did you know that Congress now has a 14% approval rating. I said it last week that they would drop another 5% and they did. They want to stiffle free speech, they won't close the borders, but just about every bastardo on the face of the earth that means to do us harm deserves every friggin right we have. I say, put them on a boat headed for the high seas in hurricane season.
Reply to this comment
by glb1969 June 22, 2007 8:59 AM PDT
When will the morons in the Bush administration learn they are not above the law and must follow it? Guantanamo is clearly illegal and must be closed for crimes against humanity. And, Bush needs to really learn that even he must obey congress, he is not King and never will be. Soon we will see him as he really is, the greatest failure our country has ever produced.
Reply to this comment
by imprisonbush June 22, 2007 9:06 AM PDT
After emptying it, they need to preserve Guatanamo including all the tools of torture to save it exclusively for use for the Bush Republicans who are convicted of war crimes.
Reply to this comment
by realpatriot1 June 22, 2007 9:10 AM PDT
mudrose,

Neocon is a code word for Israeli Likud Party loyalist first and American loyalist second.

Please provide evidence of Congress trying to stifle talk radio and I'll fight it with you. Please also provide evidence of Democrats not wanting to close the borders and I'll fight with you on that one too.

If you can offer a suggestion on how to distinguish who wants to do us harm from who was grabbed off the street by profiling and do it without a hearing and the providing of even cursory evidence then let me know about that too.

Not hating all Muslims whether guilty or not does not make someone a Muslim sympathiser. It makes someone a believer in the American system of justice rather than the Jihadist system of justice.
Reply to this comment
by mudrose-2009 June 22, 2007 9:11 AM PDT
What makes this country great is the right of defendents to a fair and speedy trial, due process, and right to be protected from cruel and unusual punishment, as well as the right not to testify against yourself.

It would be amusing to see how you would fare if the next time you went to court for say a speeding ticket you were subjected the GITMO legal process!

Posted by ozilot

In all the history of this country it has never been our enemy's right to receive any kind of due process in our legal system. I love my killer compassion. It has served me well. I survived a war and saved many a life in the process. This is not compassion. This is stupidity and a misuse of our legal system.
Reply to this comment
by mudrose-2009 June 22, 2007 9:18 AM PDT
Please provide evidence of Congress trying to stifle talk radio and I'll fight it with you. Please also provide evidence of Democrats not wanting to close the borders and I'll fight with you on that one too.

If you can offer a suggestion on how to distinguish who wants to do us harm from who was grabbed off the street by profiling and do it without a hearing and the providing of even cursory evidence then let me know about that too.
Posted by realpatriot1

Boxer and Clinton. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla.
said Thursday on John Ziegler's evening radio show on KFI in L.A. that he overheard Clinton, D-N.Y., and Boxer, D-Calif., saying they want legislation to control conservative radio talk shows.

S1639. New Name for Immigration Bill that Senator Harry Reid is trying to ram down our throats. It's the same bill that was previously introduced.

If you can offer a suggestion on how to distinguish who wants to do us harm from who was grabbed off the street by profiling and do it without a hearing and the providing of even cursory evidence then let me know about that too.

Then send them back to the country of their origins. We had weeded out those that were picked up off the streets as you say. They do not belong in our legal system.
Reply to this comment
by realpatriot1 June 22, 2007 9:23 AM PDT
mudrose,

We can't win the war on terror by sticking it to the rest of the world.

You assume that anyone we accuse is automatically guilty.There are plenty of people in there that we have the goods on and who should never see the light of day. There are also people that we grabbed off the street on the flimsiest of evidence that we've denied all INTERNATIONAL rights to!

Don't you think that can create more terror? It stands to reason that at least some of these people were not terrorists before but their relatives are now.

This is what many conservatives still don't get about the war on terror(yes,forget Edwards, the war is real)-In order to win,we can't go it alone and alienate the rest of the world. That's not in anyone's interest!

We need to get back to having the broad international support that we had after Sept.11 when we were widely perceived as the victim and not the perp.

This isn't the way to do it. Abu Grab isn't the way to do it. Standing up for and representing American principles is the way to do it.

Reply to this comment
by mudrose-2009 June 22, 2007 9:34 AM PDT
This isn't the way to do it. Abu Grab isn't the way to do it. Standing up for and representing American principles is the way to do it.

Posted by realpatriot1

Abu Grab was an aberration. No doubt. These people were unsupervised and left to their own devices did unspeakable things that humilited their captors. Not the way to go. As to the other situation, I object to having these people processed through our legal system. I'm sorry, I stand very firm on that in light of the 4th Circuit determinations on the definition of enomy combatants. Since when do the courts have the right to determine who the enemy is or is not.
Reply to this comment
by hungry1968 June 22, 2007 9:34 AM PDT
I think mudrose's opinions are really disturbing. He REALLY believes that these people can be held indefinitely without ever being charged with anything. It's scary the way these bush backers think. What about he people that are being released? They must be innocent otherwise they wouldn't be released - right? What if they had been able to represent themselves in a trial? Would they have been released sooner?
Very scary indeed....
Reply to this comment
by jegibbons June 22, 2007 9:37 AM PDT
Posted by ozilot at 09:02 AM : Jun 22, 2007

==the right of defendents to a fair and speedy trial, due process, and right to be protected from cruel and unusual punishment, as well as the right not to testify against yourself.==

This comment would be COMICAL if it wasn't so pathetically DUMB! These people are CRIMINAL TERRORIST COMBATANTS taken from a battlefield in Afganistan or Iraq. They are NOT US citizens.

BTW - F.D.R. the BELOVED LIBERAL PRESIDENT OF WWII era jailed Japanese American Citizens during the World War. He did so without trial or due process. His logic, no reason other than fear and suspicion. NOT RIGHT, but it was understandable.

GITMO detainees are undeniable ENEMY COMBATANTS.
They are not American citizens. They are NOT under any circumstance entitled to the guarantees of our US CONSTITUTION. In our history have we ever guaranteed enemy combatants a status that gusrantees the right to trial? ANSWER NO!
This LOGIC could only come from an uninformed LIBERAL. We are at War. I know that may offend you, but it's the REALITY.
These Terrorists are counting on us to play fair. Go Figure!
THE BAD GUYS ARE CCOMING BACK.
Reply to this comment
by adventurepa June 22, 2007 9:43 AM PDT
Sounds like they are trying to get rid of anything that can come back to them after they leave office. Similar to the Nazi's in WWII and the detention camps. We got there early and found out they were death camps.
Wonder what they would find if the same happened to Gitmo?
Reply to this comment
by mudrose-2009 June 22, 2007 9:44 AM PDT
Sounds like they are trying to get rid of anything that can come back to them after they leave office. Similar to the Nazi's in WWII and the detention camps. We got there early and found out they were death camps.
Wonder what they would find if the same happened to Gitmo?
Posted by adventurepa

Volley ball fields. Three hots, a cot and the Koran.
Reply to this comment
by realpatriot1 June 22, 2007 9:47 AM PDT
mudrose,

I hear what you're saying. I don't advocate trying all these people inour already overburdened justice system and giving them the same Constitutional rights as citizens. I realize some are calling for that.

Here's the problem from my perspective. We're in new territory here,hence grabbing people off the street. I know that you're correct that some innocents have been released already because I've seen them being interviewed by the media. I believe there's a really good chance that there are more, not because i think Bush is the evil one but because this is all new so there's no real precedent for this.

A military tribunal,as I understand it, doesn't require any evidence to be presented. We both agree that it should be kept out of our courts.

We either need to come up with a hearing process to provide evidence of terrorist activity that international observers can have confidence in or we need to send people back to their home countries.

Reply to this comment
by jasonking4 June 22, 2007 10:04 AM PDT
Abu Gharib wasn't a abherration, a one-off. Abu Gharib was institutionalised torture. It started with abandonment of the Geneva Conventions, which Attourney General Gonzozales called "quaint", to tacit approval for torture of Iraqis to gain intelligence and humiliate them by Donald Rumsfeld, transmitted through the Pentagon to senior generals. Private contractors were used to try and hide the army's complicity in these crimes.

It was in fact a job well done, except in the fact that they caught out in the end.
Reply to this comment
by adventurepa June 22, 2007 10:04 AM PDT
Volley ball fields. Three hots, a cot and the Koran.
Posted by mudrose
Are you kidding mudrose? You must be.
I guess you missed the torture stuff happening at the secret US bases in other parts of the world. How about the fact Chaney is blocking secret meetings and stuff for the archives?
Are you that much in denial?
Think about it for a second.
Out of country and able to be disposed of easily down there.
Reply to this comment
by hungry1968 June 22, 2007 10:12 AM PDT
"This comment would be COMICAL if it wasn't so pathetically DUMB! These people are CRIMINAL TERRORIST COMBATANTS taken from a battlefield in Afganistan or Iraq. They are NOT US citizens."

"GITMO detainees are undeniable ENEMY COMBATANTS."
Posted by JEGibbons at 09:37 AM : Jun 22, 2007

Then why are they being released without being charged with crimes? We release "CRIMINAL TERRORIST COMBATANTS" from custody? They must not be "undeniable ENEMY COMBATANTS" if they're being let go - right?
Reply to this comment
by mudrose-2009 June 22, 2007 10:19 AM PDT
Volley ball fields. Three hots, a cot and the Koran.
Posted by mudrose
Are you kidding mudrose? You must be.
I guess you missed the torture stuff happening at the secret US bases in other parts of the world. How about the fact Chaney is blocking secret meetings and stuff for the archives?
Are you that much in denial?
Think about it for a second.
Out of country and able to be disposed of easily down there.
Posted by adventurepa

Any proof? I think we should have proof and not hearsay. Just like the Minister of Iraq who called U.S. Troops liars when our people found disabled orphans unattended, in squalor, naked, starving and in their own excrement. And we are talking about Gitmo?
Reply to this comment
by jegibbons June 22, 2007 10:21 AM PDT
==guess you missed the torture stuff happening at the secret US bases in other parts of the world.==

Some people believe Superman can fly, too.
WHY? Because they read it somewhere.

Know what's good about Secret Bases?
You never have to prove they exist!
==Are you that much in denial?==
COME ON? No one is that big of a CHUMP,are they?
Reply to this comment
by hungry1968 June 22, 2007 10:24 AM PDT
Mudrose

Do you have no concerns about your blind allegiance to the president? No matter what he or Cheney does, you defend it without question. Do you have any reservations about anything this president has done?
Reply to this comment
by mudrose-2009 June 22, 2007 10:26 AM PDT
Mudrose

Do you have no concerns about your blind allegiance to the president? No matter what he or Cheney does, you defend it without question. Do you have any reservations about anything this president has done?
Posted by hungry1968

None whatsoever, especially in a time of WAR.
Reply to this comment
by mudrose-2009 June 22, 2007 10:32 AM PDT
Abu Gharib wasn't a abherration, a one-off. Abu Gharib was institutionalised torture. It started with abandonment of the Geneva Conventions, which Attourney General Gonzozales called "quaint", to tacit approval for torture of Iraqis to gain intelligence and humiliate them by Donald Rumsfeld, transmitted through the Pentagon to senior generals. Private contractors were used to try and hide the army's complicity in these crimes.

It was in fact a job well done, except in the fact that they caught out in the end.
Posted by jasonking4

It's an aberration. I say tomato and you say tamoto.
Reply to this comment
by adventurepa June 22, 2007 10:34 AM PDT
"guess you missed the torture stuff happening at the secret US bases in other parts of the world"
This is well documented information.
Canada had a very large case involving one of it's citizens.

"Know what's good about Secret Bases?
You never have to prove they exist!"
They exist. Many facts have been published about this .
O unless of cource you believe everything the government tells you.

"Are you that much in denial?"
"COME ON? No one is that big of a CHUMP,are they?"
Do tell!



Reply to this comment
by space_poet June 22, 2007 10:39 AM PDT
Just to clear up the topic on curving conservative talk radio, there is a reason. In a recent study : In the spring of 2007, of the 257 news/talk stations owned by the top five commercial station owners, 91 percent of the total weekday talk radio programming was conservative, and only 9 percent was progressive.

This is ridiculous. I understand the right to a free and open market, but there is obviously no balance when it comes to what people are being fed on the radio. Personally, I don't feel they have the right to dictate radio programs, ever, but you have to admit there is a serious inbalance, no?
Reply to this comment
by hungry1968 June 22, 2007 10:39 AM PDT
None whatsoever, especially in a time of WAR.
Posted by mudrose at 10:26 AM : Jun 22, 2007

We're not at war. The "War on Terror" is a catch phrase. You can't declare war on an idea, and Iraq had nothing to do with terrorism until we arrived and liberated the insurgents from Saddam Hussein.

But you know - never mind. There's no point in trying to converse with someone that has such a closed mind. Have a nice life.
Reply to this comment
by jegibbons June 22, 2007 10:43 AM PDT
The EXTREMIST FAR LEFT bullies have bashed our president for so long THEY no longer have any credability with any informed, patriotic, educated Amercan.

I am completely confident in the combined wisdom of the American electorate. Together they may not be happy about this war, that's understandable. They are not happy about a number of things about this administration,Okay. But they are not READY to substitute a WEAK KNEED LIBERAL committed to cut and run, either.
If the Liberal Press continues to SPIN baseless, insinuation into believable accusation, the US will not only LOSE this war, but we will never be safe AGAIN.
Reply to this comment
by jegibbons June 22, 2007 10:50 AM PDT
==You can't declare war on an idea,==

Oh really?? What was the COLD WAR if not a war of ideas and economics. I guess we won that one because the LOONIES ON THE LEFT didn't realize it WAS a war.
RONALD REAGAN called it!
=="Tear down this wall!"==
Reply to this comment
by mudrose-2009 June 22, 2007 10:51 AM PDT
We're not at war. The "War on Terror" is a catch phrase. You can't declare war on an idea, and Iraq had nothing to do with terrorism until we arrived and liberated the insurgents from Saddam Hussein.

But you know - never mind. There's no point in trying to converse with someone that has such a closed mind. Have a nice life.
Posted by hungry1968

Yeah, I know what you mean. Hahahahaha.
Reply to this comment
by rafterman1 June 22, 2007 11:02 AM PDT
===Any proof? I think we should have proof and not hearsay.===

You dumba$$, I am so sick of this f*cking denial from you wingnuts. D1ck Cheney has been hitting the Sunday morning show circuit the last two years DEFENDING the US's use of torture. Remember the brohaha a while back about Cheney denying waterboarding being torture? Ever see the pictures of the "restraint" chair at Abu? You want proof? How about Cheney's own G0ddamn mouth?
Reply to this comment
by lorinkundert June 22, 2007 11:04 AM PDT
Don't you just love the libs using the term "Progressive" to describe themselves? There is nothing progressive about a socialist dictatorship and nothing progressive about stealing a persons money they worked hard for to hand over to a bunch of lazy welfare jockeys.
Reply to this comment
by rafterman1 June 22, 2007 11:06 AM PDT
======RONALD REAGAN called it!===

Ah, yes, the guy who sold weapons to our terrorist enemy Iran.
Reply to this comment
by rafterman1 June 22, 2007 11:10 AM PDT
===Don't you just love the libs using the term "Progressive" to describe themselves? There is nothing progressive about a socialist dictatorship and nothing progressive about stealing a persons money they worked hard for to hand over to a bunch of lazy welfare jockeys.===

Too bad your description of progressives is wrong and made up only to make it easier to hate liberals. Also too bad (for your "hate poor people" theory) that only a small majority of people abuse welfare and that most of them who are on it need it. But if it makes you feel better to make up facts in order to rage against liberals, knock yourself out.
Reply to this comment
See all 185 Comments
  • MOST POPULAR
  • Viewed
  • Commented
Latest News
Featured Blogs