Rice says U.S. can't close Guantánamo

[seafan]

Rice says U.S. can't close Guantánamo

WASHINGTON - Associated Press
May. 21, 2006

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the U.S. would be delighted to close the Guantánamo Bay prison, but cannot until settling the fate of ''hundreds of dangerous people'' held there.
''We cannot be in a situation in which we are just turning loose on helpless populations or unprotected populations people who have vowed to kill more Americans if they're released,'' Rice said today in an appearawnce on Fox News Sunday.

About 460 men the Pentagon describes as suspected al Qaeda and Taliban fighters are detained at the U.S. Navy Base in southeast Cuba, most for more than four years; 10 have been charged with war crimes.

''Obviously, we don't want to be the world's jailer. We will be delighted when we can close down Guantánamo,'' Rice told Fox TV.
``But I would ask this: If we do close down Guantánamo, what becomes of the hundreds of dangerous people who were picked up on battlefields in Afghanistan, who were picked up because of their associations with al Qaeda?''

President George W. Bush has said he is waiting for a Supreme Court ruling on whether inmates can face military tribunals before he considers whether to close the facility.

snip

[One Honest Guy]

1. "Obviously, we don't want to be the world's jailer"

Too late.

[fushuugi]

25. interesting statement.....

coming from the administration the presides over the world's largest prison population.

[boobooday]

28. Gee, if that is so obvious . . .

Why does she feel compelled to say it?

Dangerous people? How do we know? How many of them have been tried and convicted under the law? Oh, none?

Cause you said so, eh, Condi?

[saigon68]

41. She "GETS OFF" on torture

[ladjf]

2. Yes, we can and with no added danger from terrorism.

[Roland99]

3. Yeah, like no other country or no other facility could house them.

:eyes:

[bemildred]

4. Stop me now, before I torture again. nt

[onehandle]

5. What about all the Saudis you released this week?

Oh, right. The Saudis have been angels since they funded 9/11.

[MannyGoldstein]

6. Holy Crap

The Bushies are now in full retreat. Backpeddling on Gitmo, agreeing to Congressional oversight on illegal warrantless wiretapping... I just hope the Democrats can make hay from this.

[NYC Liberal]

7. Can't close until "settling their fate"?

THEN FUCKING CHARGE THEM WITH A CRIME AND HOLD TRIALS!

Let's go! What have they been waiting for? This is what has been argued for years now. The problem with Guantanamo, other than the torture, is that they haven't even CHARGED prisoners with any crimes.

[NanceGreggs]

8. Exactly!

"... what becomes of the hundreds of dangerous people who were picked up on battlefields in Afghanistan, who were picked up because of their associations with al Qaeda?"

If their 'associations with al Qaeda' are verifiable enough to detain them, why haven't they been CHARGED?

Someone should throw Condi in an institution for the criminally insane. And maybe twenty, thirty, forty years from now, we'll give her a chance to prove her sanity and let her go.

How does that sound, Feragammo-Girl?

[MadMaddie]

9. That's the problem from the reports most if not all of the

people have nothing to do with Al Queda....if they let them go the world will be let in on the truth and they can't have it....

I hope the Hague has enough prison rooms for these criminals..

[burrowowl]

24. Amen!

Bu$hCo is caught in a trap, they can't charge them, because then the whole idiocy of circumventing the Geneva Conventions by creating "enemy combattants" goes down the tube.

[daleo]

10. Here's a plan, Rice: Give then a speedy trial

If they are guilty of an actual crime, then imprison them, else let them go. Try reading a little thing called the U.S. constitution - the basic idea is laid out quite nicely in that document. As a backup, try reading something called Magna Carta.

[struggle4progress]

11. 5 Ex-Guantanamo Detainees Freed in Kuwait

The Associated Press
Sunday, May 21, 2006; 11:16 PM


KUWAIT CITY -- A Kuwait criminal court on Sunday acquitted five former Guantanamo detainees of charges that they collected money for Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.

The five were freed from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay in November but were arrested upon their return home to Kuwait and were charged with belonging to al-Qaida ..

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/21/AR2006052101476.html

[struggle4progress]

12. Britain frees all five former Guantanamo detainees

Posted 3/10/2004 5:40 PM Updated 3/10/2004 7:34 PM

LONDON (AP) — All four men who were arrested on their return to Britain from U.S. military detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were released Wednesday without charge, police said.
A fifth man had not been arrested when the group arrived at Northolt Royal Air Force Base Tuesday, and he was freed within hours ..

The four had been arrested under an anti-terrorism law, but their lawyers and relatives insisted they were innocent and should have been freed ..

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-03-10-detainee-released_x.htm

[struggle4progress]

13. Innocent, but in limbo at Guantánamo

Five Chinese Muslims, captured in Pakistan by mistake, try to get the US Supreme Court to take their case.

from the February 13, 2006 edition

By Warren Richey | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

MIAMI – Five Muslim detainees from China's western Xinjiang province are stranded in a legal no man's land at the US terrorism prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

They shouldn't be there. Even the US military has found that the men, members of the besieged Uighur ethnic group, are not enemy combatants. But their ordeal in custody isn't over. Because they could face harsh treatment back in China - and the US doesn't want to set a precedent by granting them asylum here - they sit in a barracks-like detention center waiting for a country to give them a home.

Now, more than four years after their imprisonment by US military forces, the men are asking the US Supreme Court to examine their case. At issue is whether individuals captured abroad can be held in military detention indefinitely - even after the US government has declared that they pose no threat to national security.

"These men have been adjudged by the military to be, essentially, mistakes. They are innocent men captured by mistake by US forces abroad," says Neil McGaraghan, a lawyer representing two of the detainees ..

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0213/p03s03-usju.html

[gratuitous]

14. We "CAN'T" close Guantanamo???

What manner of shit be that? And they released five detainees in November, who have been acquitted in their country of origin. Acquitted of what, you might ask? Collecting money for Al-Qaida. Woooo, that sounds dangerous. Collecting money for an organization run by a multi-millionaire. Uh huh. Right.

The reason these lying liars lie so much is so they never present a stationary target.

[wovenpaint]

27. My definition of "can't" is "WON'T"

It's just a softer version, IMHO.
When others tell me they can't do something, I tend to question the reason - and I look closely at myself when I'm using the term "can't"...and I find that in most cases, it really does mean "won't".

[struggle4progress]

15. Afghans reveal Guantanamo ordeal

Last Updated: Tuesday, 25 March, 2003, 19:06 GMT

Afghan prisoners released from US detention in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have told of being kept in small cages and interrogated dozens of times to try to prove links to al-Qaeda or the Taleban.

The 18 men returned to Afghanistan last week.

Most did not complain about conditions at the US base, but were angry at the way they were arrested and at what they said was brutal treatment by Afghan jailers before they left.

They also condemned how long it took to prove their innocence ..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2886245.stm

[struggle4progress]

18. Guilty Until Proven Innocent: The James Yee Story

March 22, 2004

By MIKE WHITNEY

.. Captain Yee, a proud West Point graduate, whose career has been distinguished by conscientiously applying himself to "playing by the rules" and a simple faith that the system rewards hard work, was arrested nearly a year ago and charged with espionage ..

No proof of his guilt was offered ..

Now, that the travesty of Yee's arrest is being exposed (he has been released unceremoniously, and without an apology) we can see that the Military had no evidence from the very beginning. And, they knew it.

Those who read the details carefully at the onset knew that Yee was not carrying classified documents. The Army even admitted it publicly ..

http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney03222004.html

[struggle4progress]

19. An Innocent Man in the Hell of Guantánamo

By Sara Daniel
Le Nouvel Observateur

Week of Thursday 24 November 2005 Edition

He's forgotten nothing of the pain, the humiliation, the solitude. American investigators took a year to clear him. And another year to free him. Beyond the revolting injustice to which he was victim, former journalist Bader Zaman denounces the arbitrariness of American detention centers.

He suffers from hypermnesia. It's twelve months since Bader Zaman was released from Guantánamo prison, but he remembers every detail of his detention. Not only the pain, the humiliation, the solitude, but also little things: dogs' breath, the scrape of the razor against his eyebrows, the accent of the creep who cried out over the megaphone to the other soldiers: "Don't show any sympathy for the terrorists!" He can't forget anything. Today he is free. The Americans have cleared him of all accusations against him. Yet, in Peshawar, this former journalist's liberty still remains under tight surveillance. A few weeks ago, ISI (Pakistani Secret Service) agents came back to see him again. He received them calmly: "What do I have to fear from you now? Have you found a worse hell on the earth than the one you've already thrown me into?"

To meet Bader Zaman, one must dive into the alleys of Old Peshawar. The 35-year-old journalist, who looks ten years older, has transformed himself into a trader in precious stones since his liberation. In a dark little room in the middle of the rubber tire souk, he holds his stock of lapis-lazuli from Afghanistan. Meeting a foreign woman is just not done in this city controlled by Islamists, but Bader Zaman insists on bearing witness. He doesn't really resent the Americans. According to him, the party responsible for his Calvary is the Pakistani Secret Service, which he intends to sue. "I spent two months and twenty-two days in Peshawar prison, fourteen days at Bagram, two months and eight days in Kandahar and two years and four months in Guantánamo, solely because I denounced their practices" ..

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/printer_112505A.shtml

[seafan]

21. Thank you, struggle4progress, for all these additional links.

This whole thing just makes me sick.

[WindRavenX]

16. great, she's speaking at Boston College tomorrow

:puke:

[Erika]

17. W's witch hunt goes on

with no legal process for these people. W says they are accused so they are guilty.

That's not quite how America was supposed to work.

[truthisfreedom]

20. congrats on coming up with a new description for America, Condi!

"the world's jailer." excellent. denying something we were never accused of before.

[Spinzonner]

22. I have to agree with her

We'll need a place to keep her and all the rest of the administration gang when they're indicted.

[HuffleClaw]

23. Bush has said he is waiting for a Supreme Court ruling...

THAT really does say it all don't it?

translation: "unless you MAKE me, i'm not gonna do nuttin!"

[Gman]

26. Yeah, those 9 year olds are vicious creatures

just don't turn 'em loose on the world.

[Supersedeas]

29. The image of Condiliar being 'delighted' is not a pleasant one

[Orsino]

30. "Blah, blah, blah, stay the course, blah, blah."

No new ideas in a changing world. Keep on keepin' on.

[Disturbed]

31. Bull! They could be transferred to other US Prisons.

The US has prisons all over the world.


“You can’t allow somebody to commit the crime before you detain them, because if they commit the crime, thousands of innocent people die,” Condoleezza Rice

[spinbaby]

32. Why yes, we do have prisons all over the world

But none of them as convenient for a quick weekend torture junket.

[coalition_unwilling]

33. Guantanamo Bay is a concentration camp. How long is it

going to be before someone in a position of prominance says that?

Likewise, John Walker Lindh is a political prisoner. How long will it be before someone in a position of prominance says that?

[CHICKEN CAPITOL USA]

35. I'm still waiting-Dem Reps are ALL DINOs and they're all CHICKEN!

With a Capital C-

[coalition_unwilling]

36. And, as the alleged $100,000 bribe to Dem Rep William Jefferson

demonstrates, also prone to corruption (altho Repuke scale of said corruption mightily dwarfs Dem failings in that regard).

I'm working as a volunteer for Marcy Winograd in her primary challenge to Jane Harman. If Harman wins the primary, I will either not vote in the general election or will vote Democratic Socialist.

[CHICKEN CAPITOL USA]

38. now if everybody did what you're going to do...

the people's voice might be heard loud and clear~!

p.s. we are in for some rough times in the very near future---
just wait til people find out the voting machines have been dead-bold rigged
for quite some time --
They might just freak--or worse yet- they might not even care.

[coalition_unwilling]

39. As noted Democrat Josef Stalin once said (roughly para-

phrasing): "He who casts the vote decides nothing. He who counts the vote decides everything." (I've always appreciated Stalin's black humor, apostasy though that may be.)

[CHICKEN CAPITOL USA]

40. that's a keeper--i!i!-

Very true statement.
Speaking of voting-
The media is getting us ready for accepting without questioning-

ex: American Idol--FCC says it's not a game show
and doesn't have to prove votes or follow any rules.
stated purpose was Entertainment value only.
How many people think their American Idol vote counts?
or that the vote is legit?
the answer would be most people who watch the show think the winner is decided by the viewers.

These behind the scenes PR guys know what they're doing-
Shows like these are NOT an accident or a coincidence.
Once they get the masses to "just accept" and they get used to it,
then they can pull ALL the stops,so to speak.
And they WILL I predict.

[spanone]

34. Criminals hiding criminals. Scary world.

[madmark]

37. Hey idiot, declare war on al quada, open prisoner of war camps

on us soil, like we do in any other war, and keep the prisoners there under the geneva convention. It is not mandatory that you continue to try to use Guantanamo as a jurisdictional basis to try and skirt US laws against torture.