Courtesy of CNN:
President Barack Obama on Tuesday called for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility after delivering his plan to Congress to achieve a goal that has long eluded his presidency.
The blueprint comes seven years after Obama made an Oval Office vow to permanently shutter the prison for enemy combatants, but it already faces objections from Republicans and legal obstacles they have placed to transferring Guantanamo detainees to U.S. prisons.
Obama nonetheless said emptying the prison would move the country past what he described as a troubled era of wartime behavior.
"The plan we're putting forward today isn't just about closing the facility at Guantanamo. It's not just about dealing with the current group of detainees, which is a complex piece of business because of the manner in which they were originally apprehended and what happened. This is about closing a chapter in our history," he said during short remarks at the White House.
"Keeping this facility open is contrary to our values," Obama said. "It undermines our standing in the world. It is viewed as a stain on our broader record of upholding the highest standards of rule of law."
Of course this news was not exactly welcomed by the Republicans.
This courtesy of Esquire:
The president has never wavered in his desire to close down the prison, but it is pure Green Lanternism to imagine that he could have done it alone. The Republicans in Congress, adorning the politics of fear with a glistening coat of chickenshit, passed a law that forbade the use of taxpayer money to fund the transfer of Gitmo detainees to the United States, where they might use their Muslim heat vision to melt the walls of a SuperMax somewhere in the heartland. Right on schedule Tuesday, this line of argument found voice in the Richelieu of Rumford.
Even before the report was submitted to Congress, lawmakers were lining up to voice their objections. Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) accused the Obama administration of not properly describing the risks associated with the remaining detainees at the prison. "The American people have a right to expect that the administration will be transparent and honest with them about the activities and associations of the terrorists who remain at Guantanamo," Ayotte said in a statement Monday. "The administration's refusal to do so only underscores the fact that closing Guantanamo will make Americans less safe."
Yeah, you know what kept us "less safe?"
Starting two unnecessary wars, bombing the crap out of civilians, and then caging often innocent people like animals for as much ten years without benefit of a trial.
Gitmo is the perfect propaganda tool and keeping in open puts American lives at risk every single day.
Just another reminder as to why it so important that Democrats hold onto the Presidency.
President Obama delivers plan to close Guantanamo Bay. As expected the Republicans freak out.
5:06 AM
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