Obama hasn't done a damn thing about Gitmo - it is a still a horrible place

[ensho]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article6725411.ece

Guantánamo Bay: the inside story


Six months ago this week President Obama, on his second day in office, promised to close the Guantánamo detention camp within a year, and to undo the secretive and coercive detention and interrogation policies of George W. Bush. But has Obama been as good as his word?

I went to Guantánamo last month to see for myself what difference, if any, Obama’s election had made. My trip was surreal from start to end. I was in line for the rotating junket to the island, and had been given a date by a nervous-sounding and very young Lieutenant Cody Starken. I signed papers that committed me to not reporting classified information — on pain of prosecution. Then I got on a tiny aircraft — unmarked on any announcement board — out of Fort Lauderdale airport.

On the aircraft were bland-looking contractors, male and female, who deflected my small talk, and two young staffers from the Centre for Constitutional Rights, the organisation representing the detainees when no one else would touch the work, and which now co-ordinates hundreds of lawyers from across the country doing so: Pardis Kebriaei, a staff lawyer, and Jess Baen, a legal worker, tried to answer all my questions until my military handler determinedly parted us on our arrival. Lawyers are kept in a compound on one side of the military base at Guantánamo, journalists housed on the other side; they may never communicate with or run into one another. As a journalist, a handler sticks within 18in of you at all times, standing outside when you go to the bathroom and near by when you buy personal items at the commissary; your phone calls and e-mail are monitored.

Passport check was followed by our descent over the glittering curve of the sea on to the edge of Cuba, which was studded with lights. A tired, courtly Navy media specialist, MC1 Mapp, whisked me through security checks; I took in the heat, humidity, mosquitoes and languid crowds of Filipino and Jamaican contractors. We stepped into a ferry; then a young, chipper Sergeant Hillegass — in his other life, a 911 dispatcher — met us in a van and drove us to a street of identical townhouses. I was left alone in the house.

My mobile phone could not call out directly, my BlackBerry did not work, there was no internet access for my computer. My press kit had a scene of a lush sunset on the cover, and a speedboat.

-long snip detailing the awfulness of the place-
-----------------------------

if you continue reading this report, each paragraph is more horrible then the next.

Obama hasn't done anything to close the place.

they are still bldg. a large building that is not supposed to be built???

the place is disgusting.

they are still force feeding prisoners.

Obama needs to go there in person! I'll say it again. Obama needs to go there in person!

what a shameful country we are to have this place still open.

[Freddie Stubbs]

1. He promised to close it within a year. Six months is less than a year

[Buzz Clik]

4. Yeah. So? What's your point?

Are you insinuating that some people are hysterical idiots? Well, are you?

[Fire1]

8. I say, if the shoe fits. n/t

[rhett o rick]

13. Freddie? Yes he is a Blue Dog, aren't you Freddie. nm

[rhett o rick]

19. The link is for you.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6242670

[cherokeeprogressive]

2. 178 days until 01/22/2010. 178 days and by Executive Order it will close.

Or so we've been told.

I guess only time will tell.

[Buzz Clik]

3. "My mobile phone could not call out directly, my BlackBerry did not work," Sweet Jesus!

Nope. This is not The Onion. I guess the guy is serious.

[zulchzulu]

5. Fercchrissakes, if the fucknut had an iPhone he could have downloaded the Gitmo app

:sarcasm:

As said, it closes within the year. And no, you don't get a pony.

[invictus]

6. Obama must be playing chess again.

:sarcasm:

[MarjorieG]

7. How many prisoners is the UK taking in?

[4lbs]

9. I guess you missed the news about the Congress (especially the Senate) having a tantrum about some

of the detainees being relocated to the U.S.?

You know, Harry Reid's asinine statement about:

Reid: "I don't want terrorists released in the U.S."

AP Reporter: "But Senator, they would be detained in Super Max prisons."

Reid: "You gotta release them to detain them."


Or you must have missed the Senate voting down funding of the closing of Guantanomo?

Or you must have missed the number of countries refusing to take in prisoners. So far, only about a dozen of the several hundred to be released have found homes.

So, then, with the Senate against him, and other countries not readily accepting detainees, how exactly is President Obama supposed to close it quickly?

He said within a year. There's still 6 more months.

[ieoeja]

10. I read the whole thing. Looks like things have improved a bit.

To begin with, they were taken out of exposed cages and put into private cells. I would say that is one HUGE improvement.

[shaniqua6392]

11. My nephew is an army prison guard

and was just told he will be sent back there in early November. Why would they send him back there to do another rotation at Gitmo if it was going to close in January? Something stinks about the time line. But, I will still give Obama the benefit of the doubt and wait until next year.

[Fire1]

12. This country is shameful for alot more reasons than gitmo. n/t

[scheming daemons]

14. He needs to keep it open as a place to put all the teabaggers committing violence at town halls

...at least I HOPE that is why.

[salguine]

15. You obviously want a pony to cure your "poutrage"! Do I need the sarcasm tag?

[Hippo_Tron]

16. Force feedings aside it sounds like a typical maximum security prison

And I agree that they are a form of torture and he should end them.

[Cali_Democrat]

17. Murdoch rag that doesn't realize Obama said he would close it within a year.

Don't be fooled by The Times. They were cheerleading the Iraq War and would love nothing more than for Guantanamo to stay open. They are owned by Murdoch's Newscorp and their goal here is to pretend Obama broke his promise and isn't doing anything about Guantanamo.

They want to create outrage on the left against Obama.

[saltpoint]

18. Facts matter. Update your file.