Should Gitmo be Shut Down? Joe Biden thinks so

[mopaul]

http://www.freep.com/news/nw/gitmo6e_20050606.htm

June 6, 2005

ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON -- A leading Senate Democrat said Sunday that the United States should shut down the military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.


"This has become the greatest propaganda tool that exists for recruiting of terrorists around the world," Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."


"More Americans are in jeopardy as a consequence of the perception that exists worldwide with its existence," said Biden, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.


There are about 540 detainees at Guantanamo, where U.S. soldiers have tried to extract information about the Al Qaeda terrorist network. Most prisoners were captured on the battlefields of Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002.

[whistle]

1. Yes

[Vladimir]

2. For sure, and those responsible for it should be brought to justice

and I don't mean Oliver North style slap on the wrist justice, I mean hard-labour style justice. This of course ain't gonna happen...

[Crankie Avalon]

3. Joe Biden should be sent there!!!

[G_j]

4. yes, as well as other the other secret prisons

and lets close the SOA too!

[MrModerate]

5. The price America has paid for the phony security of Gitmo,

Bagram, and Abu Ghraib is way too high -- just like everything else associated with the bungled war on terrorism.

Our honor is trashed, our friends appalled, our enemies re-energized to oppose us, and our souls shat upon.

Yeah, shut it down.

[DemonFighterLives]

6. Shut it down!

It was a mistake in the first place to start a gulag flying under Geneve Conventions. Dubby needs to answer for this, and the tortures.

[mopaul]

7. the basic concept just sucks, can't torture here, so we do it there

like that makes it better somehow, like pilate washing his hands i guess.

[DemonFighterLives]

13. Yeah, but the neocons love it

They hate us for our freedoms don't ya know, especially after being locked up and tortured for 3 years.

[Protagoras]

8. Gitmo is just one of many

if Shutting it down makes everyone quiet down because they think the problem has gone away then no...I want it to sit there like a giant sign calling attention to what Bushco is doing to political prisoners.

On the other hand...if it's part of a larger policy change...where we begin to follow the international rule of law and Geneva Convention...then good, it's a place to start.

[Double T]

9. Gitmo represents EVERYTHING the US opposed prior to...

the G.W. Bush Administration taking office. Shut 'er down!!!

[Walt Starr]

10. Stopped clocks are right twice a day

Even Joe Biden can't always be wrong (as he was WRT Dean).

[Norquist Nemesis]

11. Anyone see 60 minutes???

Gitmo is a life sentence for detainees. Even with military tribunals (which were detailed in the piece) that find a detainee 'not guilty', the detainee goes right back to the cell as an enemy combatant until the War on Terror is declared won by the President.

So, in essence, it is a death sentence and Bush has it both ways: either a tribunal declares guilt and a possible death sentance, or detainee still is interred indefinitely.

[Pacifist Patriot]

12. No question.

[devilgrrl]

14. Biden thought Asscrack was in contempt of congress - and did NOTHING!!!

So what? He thinks Guantanamo should shut down... like he's going to do anything about it. :sarcasm:

[neweurope]

15. No - unless they shut all of them down. All those hardly

known places in Afghanistan and elsewhere. It would help the US reputation if they shut down Guantanamo, at least until other places would get known better. So it would help only the Bushistas.

We shouldn't demand to shut down Guantanamo.
We should demand: No torture by US citizens!

------------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[mopaul]

16. NO FEDERAL FUNDING FOR TORTURE

[mopaul]

17. go gitmo kick

[AntiCoup2K4]

18. if anybody would know a propaganda tool, it would be PNAC Joey

hairplug king of the DLC sellouts.

[mopaul]

20. just heard a repub say he wants it shut down too

so they could just float the suspects out onto the horizon in cia boats and just go somewhere private where they could be tortured without amnesty international or aclu sticking their asses in it.

weird

[UdoKier]

19. Joe Biden also thinks 40% interest on a credit card is reasonable.

Sorry, a little residual ANGER left over from the bankruptcy bill.

Politicians who turn their "inner democrat" on and off whenever it's convenient kinda piss me off.


But he is of course correct on this...

[Just Me]

21. Oh, hell yes it should be shut down!!!

It should NEVER NEVER NEVER have been even erected!!!!

TEAR DOWN THAT TORTURE CHAMBER!!!!