Thursday, January 22, 2009

Gitmo slated to close.




The Gitmo prisoners never had it so good. All the visitors (without an axe to grind) reported seeing prisoners treated like kings.
Three meals a day.
The meals consistent with their religious restrictions.
A Qur'an and prayer rug for each upon request.
Clean sheets and towels every day.
Restrictions on the guards to keep quiet during the six prayer periods.
Footsteps imprinted on the hallway floors for the Marines to keep them from disturbing the prisoners.
Daily periods of exercise in the balmy air of a tropical Caribean paradise.
The only thing missing is the virgins.
This fiction of Gitmo being a "stain on the virtue of America" is a disgraceful exaggeration intended for gullible intellectual posers and left wing bloggers who actually believed the fake media narrative and repeated hysterics. One can easily predict that once Gitmo is closed they will just find another excuse to hate the USA. The Bush Hate Syndrome is just another emanation of the same hystrionics.
The vitriolic stance by the press against the victims of terrorism and our efforts to insure against future attacks are both inexplicable and puzzling on many levels. Constant excuses for the perpetrators are proferred in order to stay in lock-step with the PC narrative indoctrination so prevalent in Journalism 101 throughout academia.
Sadly, victims are too quickly forgotten. The lessons of history once again are thought to be way too outdated and out of place with today’s progressive modernism.
This is just another example of moral and ethical relativism running wild. The only ray of hope is that it is a means to an end which must ultimately seal the fate of its adherents.
Side note: I know that some insecure individuals have needed to hate somebody and Bush is an easy scapegoat. Bush bashing at this juncture is like kicking a dead horse, it’s futile, vindictive and unbecoming even of far left liberal progressives.

4 comments:

DagoodS said...

Hey, Roman.

A. Prisons of any sort are not “fun.” Yes, they get meals. And a roof over their heads. And bars at the windows. In my profession, I have the opportunity to interact with quite a few ex-prisoners. Despite these “luxuries” none of them want to go back. Ever.

B. The problem with Guantanamo Bay was NOT the accommodations—it was the lack of due process. If held in the United States, habeas corpus (a little thing in the Constitution) provides prisoners with a right to be brought before a judge to contest whether they were being wrongfully held.

All the U.S. Attorney has to do is say, “See, judge--here is the law. See, judge—here are the bare minimal facts as to why it is possible this prisoner breached the law and should be held under the terms of the law.”

Doesn’t mean the prisoner is entitled to be set free. Doesn’t protect a person from being arrested. All it does is place an extremely minimal condition upon the government to demonstrate why the person is in prison.

And the Bush Administration, in an attempt to avoid the U.S. Constitution, claimed Guantanamo Bay was “outside” the U.S., and therefore the U.S. Constitution (and habeas corpus) doesn’t apply. The reason this is a “stain” is NOT what others may think. Or Political Correctedness. Or Main Stream Media. It is that the President of the United States is sworn to uphold the U.S. Constitution for everybody (not just those for whom it is convenient or we prefer or we like) NOT circumvent it.

We should be extremely concerned when our elected officials no longer uphold the Constitution. Guantanamo Bay was a blatant example of failing to do so. It is not so much “Bush bashing” as saying, “Whoa. That was wrong. Really wrong. Unconstitutionally wrong. And we must work to both undo it and never do it again.”

roman said...

DagoodS,

Thank you for your insights. They are always on point and shed new light on the subject at hand.
A few issues need further exploration:

If held in the United States, habeas corpus (a little thing in the Constitution) provides prisoners with a right to be brought before a judge

Once these prisoners set foot on US soil, the legal system is such that it must apply the same rights as if the perpetrators were citizens. All the evidence the government has will be called into question as being coerced or at least tainted. These "worst of the worst" will be free to prey on our families.

the President of the United States is sworn to uphold the U.S. Constitution for everybody

I'm far from being an expert in Constitutional law but as far as I know, this body of laws was established as a code of laws for US citizens and legal residents.
When we attempt to apply these laws to non-citizens (aliens) we are, in effect, engaging in judicial over-reach.
I agree that the decision to house these prisoners there and leaving them there for so long was a BIG MISTAKE. It created a legal "limbo" that will be difficult, if not impossible, to rectify. I never did get a clear understanding of why only three individuals' cases were adjudicated in all that time. I suspect it was because of the many legal road blocks set up by the myriad of human rights organization that prevented the government to try them via the military courts. So, in effect, these same "prisoner rights" organization are equally culpable for the current prisoners' situation.

Frank Partisan said...

Chattel slavery provided the slaves with a roof over their heads, and free food.

Actually your reply to DagoodS, is more insightful than your actual post.

Many of the prisoners are there for dubious reasons. When the US offered monetary rewards in Afghanistan for Taliban supporters, even Chinese fleeing discrimination in China as Muslims, were detained.

beakerkin said...

Obviously the brain impaired Renegade
Spleen is unfamiliar with the term unlawful combatants. Gitmo is actually superior to the conditions that ordinary Cubans live under and provides better care than the vaunted
Cuban Medical system.