Transferring Detainees from Gitmo South to Gitmo North, USA

A painted marker in a recreation yard points the direction to Mecca at Camp Delta where detainees are held at the United States Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, January 18, 2006.
REUTERS/Joe Skipper


This is nothing more than a bait-and-switch in order to keep a campaign promise...Guantanamo isn't shutting down; just transferring locations:

Dozens of terrorism suspects being held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will be moved to a little-used Illinois state prison that will be acquired and upgraded by the federal government, an Obama administration official said.

The critical step toward fulfilling President Obama's pledge to shut the Guantanamo detention center will be announced Tuesday, said the official, who reported that Obama has ordered the acquisition of the eight-year-old Thomson Correctional Center, about 150 miles northwest of Chicago.

Obama made the move despite the objections of Republicans in Congress and in Illinois, where critics say the transfer of prisoners -- some for indefinite detention, some for trial -- could make the state a target for terrorists. Rep. Mark Kirk has called the move "an unnecessary risk."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that a bipartisan majority in Congress "already rejected bringing terrorists to U.S. soil for long-term detention."

"The administration has failed to explain how transferring terrorists to Gitmo North will make Americans safer than keeping these terrorists off of our shores in the secure facility in Cuba," McConnell said in a written statement.

In telegraphing the announcement, the official said closing the detention center at Guantanamo Bay "is essential to protecting our national security and helping our troops by removing a deadly recruiting tool from the hands of al-Qaeda."

No matter what we do, it will be a "recruitment tool" in the hands of al Qaeda because it is propagandized by our enemies, along with those on the left, as something other than what it is.

We are "nation-building" in Iraq and Afghanistan, trying to make life better for ordinary Muslim innocents. Yet propagandized by the enemy.

Both President Bush and President Obama have stressed that we are not at war with the whole of Islam. Propagandized by takfiri terrorists as not so.

Guantanamo's early days admittedly saw some problems and abuses; but for the last few years, it is the most scrutinized holding facility in the world, as far as human rights violations are concerned. The detainees there are treated far better than those servicemen and women who guard them.

Before prisoners can be moved, Congress must vote to allow detainees to be housed on U.S. soil for reasons other than trial.

Holding detainees without charge or trial....isn't that what Bush was criticized for? And now, bringing them onto U.S. soil to.....accomplish what exactly?!

We poured tons of taxpayer money into making Gitmo into a secure, safe, and comfortable holding facility for enemy combatants....now we're going to shut it down, spending wasting even more taxpayer money to safeguard Gitmo North?

Un....frakkin'....believable!

Cross-posted at Flopping Aces