10 Thursday Jun 2010
Posted in Justice Department, Obama
It’s nice to see that the Department of Justice has its priorities straight. Accusations of medical experimentation on terrorist detainees? Nothing to see here, move along. We must look forward, not back.
Blood doping in the Tour de France? Send in the prosecutors. We have to get to the bottom of this.
Idiots.
25 Thursday Mar 2010
Posted in George W. Bush, Justice Department, Obama, Politics, terrorism, war on terror
Tags
Attorney General Eric Holder, civilian courts, detainees, Guantanamo Bay, Justice Department, Michael Isikoff, military tribunals, Newsweek
One “change” I had hoped to see on January 20, 2009 was the end of the politicization of the Justice Department. Judging from this report at Newsweek by Michael Isikoff that isn’t going to be the case, as the Obama administration is set to “overrule” and “overturn” the decision of Attorney General Eric Holder to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay in civilian courts rather than military tribunals. The reason being political pressure from New York City mayor Bloomberg and Republicans in Congress:
“The White House may yet be several weeks away from announcing whether it plans to overrule Attorney General Eric Holder and order that the 9/11 conspirators be tried before military commissions rather than in civilian courts. But it’s not hard to figure out which way the wind is blowing.
…The embrace of military tribunals follows months of controversy over Holder’s decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other 9/11 conspirators in federal court in New York–a move that generated opposition from New York political figures such as Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Republicans in Congress. Administration officials have acknowledged it was looking increasingly likely that Congress would block any funding for civilian trials of the 9/11 conspirators.”
…”All the indications we’ve been given are to get ready for a lot of activity in Guanantamo,” said a military prosecutor, who asked not to be identified talking about upcoming cases. “It’s full steam ahead.”
…the big decision everyone is waiting for is whether President Obama, as is increasingly expected inside the Beltway, will overturn Holder’s decision and return Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other 9/11 co-conspirators to the military commissions.
Remember the days of an independent Department of Justice? When who was prosecuted and how was done at the discretion of the Attorney General? When an Attorney General would resign rather than succumb to political pressure from the White House?
Those days are apparently gone. No matter who occupies the Oval Office.
13 Saturday Jun 2009
Posted in Obama, Politics, Uncategorized
Tags
Democrats, detainees, Frank Wolf, Guanatanamo, Jim Webb, release, Republicans, Uighurs, Virginia
We need to change the last line of our national anthem. No longer are we the home of the brave, we are home of the frightened, cowering in fear. Fear brought on by demagogic Republicans and spineless Democrats who go along so as not to be portrayed by those demagogues as “soft on terror.”
This is the latest example that we have become a nation of cowards;
“The Obama administration has all but abandoned plans to allow Guantanamo Bay detainees who have been cleared for release to live in the United States, administration officials said yesterday, a decision that reflects bipartisan congressional opposition to admitting such prisoners but complicates efforts to persuade European allies to accept them.”
I have a message for the demagogues and the jellyfish in Washington, as well as the American people who polls show are so easily manipulated and frightened about releasing the Gitmo detainees, it’s time we man up and accept the responsibility for our actions.
We are the country who captured and incarcerated people for 6 or 7 years without charges, without trials, without proof of any wrongdoing, just the fear of what they might do if not detained, and now the fear of what they might do if released.
Now that our courts have ordered some of them set free, as in the case of the Chinese Uighurs, we are asking Palau and Bermuda to take them. Even though there is a large Uighur community in Virginia who would gladly accept them.
But no, Virginia elected officials, Sen. Jim Webb and Rep. Frank Wolf, one Democrat and one Republican, opposed the Uighurs resettling there “as a matter of national security.” Our national security is threatened by people who have been proven guilty of nothing? Nothing other than being the object of irrational fear stoked by politicians with their collective moistened fingers in the wind.
We are also asking Australia and Germany to accept released detainees but they are understandably balking because we refuse to take any of them ourselves.
Do we owe anything to those we have imprisoned without cause or without due process? If a country held me for 7 years without charges because of mere suspicion would I feel I was owed something on my release? You’re damned right I would.
But that would have to be a country which takes responsibility for it’s wrongdoings and attempts to make amends, not one whose leaders and whose population are afraid of their own shadows.
Desperado's Outpost 