Dangerous: Obama’s Muddled, Confusing Stance on Terrorists’ “Rights” Leaves Military Unsure of How to Handle Detained Enemy Combatants
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on January 21, 2010
What a difference a month makes. Seems like just yesterday that POTUS was eating shaved ice, playing multiple rounds of golf, and scuba diving in the haunting island beauty of Hawaii when a radical Muslim jihadist from Nigeria tried to blow almost 300 people in a jet to smithereens on Christmas Day. Stumbling to the occasion to address this jihadi attempt, our Commander in Chief, 100 HOURS later, gave a rah-rah “terrorism is bad” press conference speech, which was good (but terribly late and terribly lackluster), but the actions of his administration have made security matters worse as they pertain to protecting people from enemy combatants.
Pres. Obama’s waffling and flip-floppy softness on terrorism is taking a toll for the worst; DHS is equally inept, jumping to install expensive airport body scanners, but not focusing more on prevention, on tightening our border security and for not providing important, definitive protocol information to the military about “the right treatment” of terrorists.
What is the CORRECT way to handle a captured terrorist? No one really knows. Our military leaders, who should be 100-percent in compliance with Team Obama’s newest mandates, especially when training field operatives on how to make those gut-wrenching, split-second decisions in the field, are unsure. No one wants to flunk Team Obama’s “Terrorism Coddling 101″ class, and discover next month or next year that he or she will be arrested and/or sued, or the captured radical terrorist is to be let scot-free to plot and kill again, because some legal thing or protocol measure wasn’t done just right when capturing, detaining, or interrogating any murderous, American-hating jihadists. Screwing up on Obama-mandated terrorists’ rights has become a potential nightmare, a dangerous, muddled, counter-productive compromise.
Checklist: Miranda rights read? Harsh questioning eliminated? Waterboarding out? Tea and crumpets served? Pillow fluffed? Taxpayer-funded lawyers provided? WiFi up to date?
Team Obama has created a dangerous mess. Also, the UN and London offering the Taliban asylum will further complicate the mess.
From Political Integrity Now: Thanks Obama: U.S. Commanders in Afghanistan ‘Confused’ about How To Handle Captured Terrorists:
Washington (CNSNews.com) – Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), just back from a fact-finding trip to Afghanistan and Pakistan, said he and other senators found operational “confusion” among U.S. military officials on how to handle detained enemy combatants.
“From the top to the bottom, the military, the American military people that we talked to, indicated some confusion, operationally, about what you do when you detain a terrorist,” McConnell said at a press conference on Tuesday.
The Republican delegation, which McConnell led, included Republican Sens. Mike Crapo (Idaho), Roger Wicker (Miss.), and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), the Senate GOP Conference vice-chairwoman
After pointing out that a U.S. military general declined to answer questions about the handling of insurgent detainees without the presence of his lawyer, the minority leader said: “This operational confusion has . . . been created, it strikes me, unnecessarily and, frankly, dangerously, by the administration.”
McConnell criticized the administration, in particular, for recently handing over the so-called underwear bomber, Nigerian terror suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, to criminal courts rather than to the military.
“This sort of preoccupation, if you will, that we see on full display here in the U.S., with the example of the Christmas would-be bomber being turned over — not to the military for interrogation, but to criminal courts — and told he is entitled to a lawyer, is a mentality that I think is very dangerous in the war on terror,” the minority leader said.
McConnell said the administration is wrongly preoccupied with detainee “rights.”
From VANews.com: Republican Senators say US Forces in Afghanistan ‘Confused’ About Detaining Enemy Combatants:
…Senator McConnell accused President Barack Obama of being “preoccupied with prisoners’ rights, both at home and abroad, and said he believes this is wrong-headed and dangerous.
“This sort of preoccupation, if you will, that we see on full display here in the U.S. with the example of the Christmas would-be-bomber being turned over not to the military for interrogation, but to criminal courts and told he is entitled to a lawyer, is a mentality that I think is very dangerous to the war on terror,” McConnell said.
After taking office, President Obama issued orders requiring strict adherence to anti-torture rules and ordered the prison at Guantanamo to be shut down within one year, which the administration has now admitted it will not be able to do because of problems finding places for the remaining prisoners to go.
There has been discussion that some suspected terrorists captured on battlefields abroad could end up in U.S. civilian courts, and some Republican lawmakers have objected to the idea that U.S. military personnel might have to read suspected terrorists their constitutional rights.
From AllVoices, Obama new approach to terrorism too little too late:
While many Americans responded in shock about the attempted bombing of a Northwest Airliner as it approached Detroit, Obama continued playing golf and enjoying the sun in Hawaii. He was simply following the pattern he set after previous terrorist attacks, including that of a radical Islamist Army officer who murdered 13 of his fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas.
From liberal Mort Zuckerman, posting on The Daily Beast this article of extreme disappointment, He’s Done Everything Wrong:
Obama punted on the economy and reversed the fortunes of the Democrats in 365 days.
He’s misjudged the character of the country in his whole approach. There’s the saying, “It’s the economy, stupid.” He didn’t get it. He was determined somehow or other to adopt a whole new agenda. He didn’t address the main issue.
[...]
He’s improved America’s image in the world. He absolutely did. But you have to translate that into something. Let me tell you what a major leader said to me recently. “We are convinced,” he said, “that he is not strong enough to confront his enemy. We are concerned,” he said “that he is not strong to support his friends.”
The political leadership of the world is very, very dismayed. He better turn it around. The Democrats are going to get killed in this election. Jesus, looks what’s happening in Massachusetts.
It’s really interesting because he had brilliant, brilliant political instincts during the campaign. I don’t know what has happened to them. His appointments present somebody who has a lot to learn about how government works. He better get some very talented businesspeople who know how to implement things. It’s unbelievable. Everybody says so. You can’t believe how dismayed people are. That’s why he’s plunging in the polls.
Related reading:
Cynical Synapse: Obama’s First Year Anti-Terrorism Record Sucks
Flopping Aces: Nanny NATO Rules of Engagement hinder Marjah progress and More CYA From The Obama White House…Christmas Day Bomber Now Talking Because Of Family
Zipline Conservative: Obama Admin. Fails Terrorist Watch Test. CIA Advised & Napolitano Asleep
Tarheel Pundit: A Fatwa On Your Full-Body Scanners!
Moonbat Patrol: Obama’s Other Cheek? Now Tough On Terrorism
Mere Rhetoric: TSA: Nothing Can Stand Between Us And Mindlessly Destroying The American Airline Industry
Pamela Geller, Big Government: The Toothless Visas Viper
Kristinn Taylor and Andrea Shea King, Big Government: Hamas Terrorists Guaranteed Code Pink’s Safety in Gaza
The Powers That Be: Progressive Hopey-Changey Spit-Takes, Volume III: Gitmo Detainees Will Continue to Be Held Without Charge
Gateway Pundit: Detroit Christmas Bomber Interrogated For Less Than One Hour; Gibbs Defends Administration’s Actions and Martha Coakley Is Not Just Wrong on Terror War – She’s Dangerous (Must-See Video)
Endre Balogh, Big Government: When Will the Democratic Party Grow Up and Seriously Address National Security?
Dancing Czars: Lawmakers to Holder Who Decided to give Miranda Rights to Accused Detroit Bomber?
Frugal Café Blog Zone: Taliban Is Gone from Afghanistan? Martha Coakley… A Dangerous Choice at a Dangerous Time (video) and First It Was NYC, Now Team Obama Considering Adding Washington DC to List of Gitmo “Terrorist Trial” Locales and New York City Has Not Forgotten 9-11 Horrors, Mr. President (video)
VotingFemale: Obama will Torture New Yorkers; Will Try 911 Terrorist War Fighters as common criminals; sets up their walking free on basis of treatment as war fighters
Riehl World View: Riehl World View: Coakley: Oh Where, Oh Where, Have The Terrorists Gone?
John M. O’Hara, Big Government: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: Terror Trials in the Big Apple
Ace of Spades HQ: Traitorous Bastard…”Hey Sorry That We In Al Qaeda Are Cowards And Kill Lots Of Muslims”
James Panero, Big Government: War Through Weakness: How the Terrorists Win
Stop The ACLU: Oops! Americans Overwhelmingly Disagree With Obama On Civilian KSM Trial
Andrew McCarthy, National Review Online: ‘Bring my lawyer! — That’s what’s so beautiful about America.’
Greg Knapp, Big Government: Don’t Worry, It’s Only $400-$600 Million to Try Terrorists in NYC
Brian Garst, Big Government: Barack Obama’s Land of the Mostly Free
Patterico’s Pontifications: Millennium Bomber’s Lenient Sentence Reversed . . . By the Ninth Circuit? and Change: Obama to Continue Indefinite Detention and Coakley on Crime and Terrorists
Kevin McCullough, Townhall.com: NYC to Obama: No You Won’t
About the author
BHO needs to leave the decisions to engage the enemy to the officers in charge on the field and stop trying to invoke his elitist, politically correct, garbage philosophies on the battlefield.
The enemy will take you away and CUT YOUR HEAD OFF ON VIDEO DISPLAYED ON THE INTERNET !!
No trials folks.
Barry is a scared little boy that has been told throughout his life that he is the one.
Groomed for years and educated in some of the most liberal colleges in America.
Liberalism is receding and he has no response, because he has never experienced the opposition that WE THE PEOPLE are presenting to him.
And the American People are relentless in our drive to hold the Constitution as the defining rules we adhere to.
God Bless America.
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