Gitmo

[nicksaviking]

What am I missing here? Obama wants to close it and transfer the 60 or so prisoners left but the Republicans say they will block it.

 

80% of the prisoners have already been transferred, why doesn't Obama just do the same with the remaining 60? He shouldn't need congress to move prisoners, I doubt they all voted on the thousands of previous prisoners that have been transferred.

 

That would leave an empty Gitmo costing hundreds of millions of dollars a year and no justification to leave it open.

[Craig Arko]

Commander-in-Chief isn't all it's cracked up to be, apparently.

[Mike Sixel]

Don't you understand, this will ruin 'merica, and the terrorists will win if we can't detain people without due process, torture them, and do it on foreign soil.....

 

Hey, that's sarcasm, btw.....

[Hrbowski]

 

President Obama's Guantanamo Bay proposal fails to provide taxpayers with critical details required by law, including the exact cost and location of an alternate detention facility. Congress has left no room for confusion. IT IS AGAINST THE LAW—and it will stay against the law—to transfer terrorist detainees to American soil.

That quote is from Paul Ryan.

[DaveW]

Well we all know that Paul Ryan has no axe to grind with Obama.....

 

Closing Gitmo is long overdue, and the fact that it still exists is pretty embarrassing. Frankly Obama should have done this years ago, but I guess better late then never.

[nicksaviking]

That quote is from Paul Ryan.

Why not just transfer the last 60 wherever the hell they sent the other thousands of transfers then?

 

Then when congress still refuses to close it the Republicans get to explain to everyone why the taxpayers have to foot the bill for hundreds of millions per year to run an empty prison and force service men and women to live in Cuba instead of going home to their families or serve in a place where they'd be put to actual use?

 

Sounds like a great strategy to make sure anyone who pretends to be fiscally conservative and pro military gets called out for really only trying to stop Obama from getting anything done.

 

$450M per year for 60 prisoners? Give me a break Ryan.

[DaveW]

 

 

$450M per year for 60 prisoners? Give me a break Ryan.

Almost as bad as that Nolasco contract

[formerly33]

 

Almost as bad as that Nolasco contract

POTY. And it's only February.

[Paul Pleiss]

I've visited Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba a couple dozen times, and in addition to Camp X-ray and the fun inside the military prison, there is a lot of fun to be had on the island. I wonder if the US will be willing to give up it's lease on the Cuban territory in an effort to improve relations with Cuba. It's a great strategic location for US military in the Caribbean, and has a plethora of down range facilities for US forces in the area. And a great little Irish bar where I've more than once drowned my sorrows after several weeks at sea and sang some of the best/worst karaoke of my life. The snorkling/diving there is fantastic, it's always sunny, and you can play a round of golf, with a cart, for $20 bucks.

 

But the prison is a blemish on the US conscience. Charge or release the prisoners. As a nation, we need to live up to the values that made our country great. This is not the Spanish inquisition. We cannot hold these men without end.