Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on July 9, 2009

Obama will hold Gitmo terrorist detainees indefinitely, just as Bush did... he just won't be forthright about it

Two days after being sworn in as president, with huge media coverage, Obama signed three executive orders: banning torture, requiring the CIA to use the same methods as the military in interrogating terror suspects, and closing down the network of secret CIA prisons plus permanently shutting down the prison at Guantánamo Bay within a year.

As post-election realities would have it, though, Obama discovered the same inconvenient truths that George W. Bush had discovered about incarcerating jihadi terrorists. Obama was stunned to learn that the world is not all love-your-brothers utopia and Hallmark-inspired speeches.

Radical terrorists are the worst kind of dangerous. These aren’t your garden-variety killers and thugs: they are bloodthirsty, zealous fanatics. Most believe that killing infidels, particularly Americans, is a righteous and honorable thing to do; they are compelled to shed blood. Human life has little value to these terrorists. When released, many return to terrorism. Since 2002, at least 61 former Gitmo detainees have committed or are suspected to have committed attacks after being released. In May, the New York Times disclosed the existence of a Pentagon report showing that 1 in 7 jihadi Gitmo detainees had returned to terror.

No other country wants these evil people released within their borders, especially people in the terrorists’ home countries. Discussion to move the terrorists from Gitmo and inside the US was met with outcry, although Democrat Rep. Jack Murtha volunteered to house prisoners from Guantánamo Bay in his Pennsylvania district, much to the horror of Pennsylvania citizens. Placing some of the “less dangerous” terrorists in maximum security facilities, Supermax prisons, in Colorado also was met with loud criticism. Relocating them to other prison systems just for the sake of looking like something is being done is stupid and costly to American taxpayers—although, it could indeed work in that it would pacify, for a while, the lesser-informed Obama fans.

From Michelle Malkin, July 9: Dems on Gitmo transfer funds: Shhhhhhhhh!

Excerpt from Greg Gutfeld at Big Hollywood: Daily Gut: The New Gitmo Is The Old Gitmo:

…So President Obama finally figured out what to do with those detainees at Gitmo, and it only cost $12 million per captive. That’s right: we’re sending those 17 Chinese Muslim terror suspects currently at Gitmo to a place called Palau, in exchange for 200 million bucks in aid.

FYI: Palau is a little island somewhere near the Philippines, with a population of about 20,000 people. It was also the site for “Survivor,” twice – so it’s obviously familiar with housing no-good, belligerent ass-hats. So let me get this straight: Obama’s solution for fulfilling his promise to dismantle a prison camp in a foreign land… is to replace it with another prison camp in a foreign land. Truly, this is change we can believe in.

Other recent courses of action with captured terrorists have been met with jaw-dropping incredulity:
CNSNews.com: Reading Miranda Rights to Terrorists Is ‘Crazy’ and ‘Stupid,’ Say GOP Congressmen
Michelle Malkin: Miranda rights for terrorists: Next, toothbrushes and teddy bears! and Report: Supermax beds being cleared for Gitmo detainees

Obama is making the only sane, logical choice he can make—keep the terrorists who are held at Guantánamo Bay where they are. And in so doing, the president keeps the world safe, while breaking his campaign promises, disappointing his supporters, and likely disregarding the executive order he signed in January.

He will still let detained jihadi terrorists have trials, giving the impression of honoring his word and looking like a hero for mankind by doing what Bush did not. However, up until last week, Obama had decided he will not release them if they are acquitted of their terrorist crimes. Indefinite detention. The hypocrisy and duplicity of the Obama administration’s planned course of action of indefinite detention, of phony trials, of trying to play both sides of the issue to appear to placate his unsuspecting supporters, is far more dishonest than anything George W. Bush did. I have had a real problem with this proposed double-dealing. “Yes, we lied about setting you free… mwhahahahahaha!”

Then, another 180-degree flip-flop. As of June 27, the Washington Post announced that the phony trials may not be conducted. Along with that abrupt change, it appears, for now, that Gitmo will operate remain pretty much the same as it had been with the Bush administration. Indefinite detention and no trials. And no media coverage from the major “Obama news” stations.

From Hot Air: The rank dishonesty of the Obama administration:

However, one usually expects politicians — especially those running on hope and change — to either remain true to their professed core values and the issues that fueled the most passion on the campaign trail, or at least explain their change in the daylight. Obama did neither, nor did he apologize to the man he besmirched endlessly on the campaign trail while adopting the policy that Obama most demonized as a candidate.

It was easy for Obama and his supporters to take vicious, cheap shots and condemn and demonize the Bush administration on Guantánamo Bay during the presidential campaign. Once he learned all the gruesome facts about terrorists, Obama realizes that to quietly backpedal or turn his back on his lofty promises is going to be difficult. Indecisive back-and-forth dancing on Gitmo detainees isn’t over for Obama.

The Weekly Standard: Heads We Win, Tails You Lose
By Michael Goldfarb | July 8, 2009

(Greenwald-style update below – Update II)

The Obama administration has been forced, once again, to make a false choice between our ideals and our security, and like President Bush before him, Obama chose security. In January White House counsel Greg Craig was telling reporters that this administration would reserve the right to “retain and detain” those prisoners who could not be tried or released. That’s still true, but this White House would like to have its cake and eat it too. So now comes news that for those detainees that the administration does put on trial, the president may invoke his “post-acquittal detention power.”

I understand and respect the president’s decision to disregard his left-wing critics and embrace the same policies of indefinite detention and denial of due process that made the Bush-Cheney administration so effective in preventing another terror attack. I support those policies because as illegal enemy combatants, terrorists have no right to due process. But, as Glenn Greenwald points out, there is something Orwellian about this administration’s attempt to have it both ways — to get the credit for putting detainees on trial only to disregard the outcome if they don’t like the verdict. Obviously the Bush administration would have done the same if they thought for a second that they could get away with it. But even the Bush OLC wouldn’t have dared suggest detaining individuals who had been acquitted on all charges.

So the Bush administration simply detained individuals it deemed a threat to national security. It was unable to resolve this difficult question of how to proceed with detainees who were too dangerous to release but against whom the evidence was, for any number of totally legitimate reasons, not likely to secure a conviction. The Obama administration has worked out a brilliant solution: show trials whose outcomes will not be predetermined even if the sentencing is.

Update: What are the president’s post-acquittal interrogation powers?

Update II: Greenwald says that I am “uncomfortable with Obama’s assertion of ‘post-acquittal detention power.’” Just to clarify, I am not uncomfortable with “post-acquittal detention power.” I support President Obama’s decision to detain terrorists regardless of the outcome of their trials, I just resent the fact that Obama is trying to avoid a political hit from his own left-flank by putting on “trials” even though the final result will be no different than it was under Bush — indefinite detention. It’s the self-righteous posturing of this administration that offends me, not their refusal to grant terrorists fair trials and constitutional protections.

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GITMO UPDATE, January 22, 2010:
Looks like it took a year, but Pres. Obama has suddenly realized there are some really BAD terrorists at Club Gitmo… geez, what a moron.
Read the post at Patterico’s Pontifications: Change: Obama to Continue Indefinite Detention

Additional reading:
America Speaks: Leave GITMO As Is, Keep Terrorists Outside Our Borders
Frugal Café Blog Zone: “Paradiso Guantánamo” and Beauty Queens… Much More Than Meets the Eye
Hot Air: Video: Sign Inhofe’s petition to keep Gitmo open and Oh my: Obama drafts executive order to detain terrorists indefinitely without trial and Quote of the Day and Congress: Not so fast on closing Gitmo
Power Line: Resounding Rejection of Gitmo Plan
Urbin Report: Barry gets it wrong again
The Miami Herald, Guantánamo: Guantánamo Camps commander defends celebrity visits
Fire Andrea Mitchell!: Jihadi scum within the US jails
Pirates! Man Your Women: One of the Reasons That I Want Gitmo To Stay Open
Michelle Malkin: Just say no to jihadi-dumping in your backyard and Sen. Roberts on Gitmo jihadi dump: Not in my backyard and Sign the petition: Keep Gitmo detainees out and Jihadi recidivism: Not just a Bush thang and “I am a proud American and I oppose the closing of Guantanamo Bay” and 11 Gitmo recidivists on Saudi’s Most Wanted List and Close-Gitmo Dems won’t put money where their mouths are and Flip-flop watch: Obama will now fight release of “torture” photos and “Rehab:” Gitmo recidivists thumb their noses in new video and One Pennsylvanian’s response to John Murtha and “…they worried that the administration might yield to pressure to display its toughness in dealing with terrorism in its detention policies.
Burt Prelutsky, Big Hollywood: Ms. Bonner, Mr. Powell and Why I’m Now a Democrat
Political Crave: Transcript: Obama Defends Closing Guantanamo (Gitmo) Prison
John Romano, Big Hollywood: Obama in Egypt
Inside Gitmo: The True Story Behind the Myths of Guantanamo Bay
Endre Balogh, Big Hollywood: Will the Last Terrorist to Leave Gitmo Please Turn Out the Lights?

Categories: Government, International Relations, Law & Constitution, National Security, Social and Political Climate
Tags: America, Bush administration, Cuba, George W. Bush, Gitmo, Guantánamo, Guantanamo Bay, Jack Murtha, jihad, jihadi, president, terrorism, terrorists, torture, White House