Gitmo to ChicaGO, OH NO!

The decision to close Gitmo had it's followers. Their complaints centered mainly on the allegations of torture and indefinite confinement for those not formally charged. They believed this immoral behavior hurt our standing in the world. As a former defense attorney, I share some of those concerns as well. (But more and more, I care less and less about our "standing" in the world. We were attacked before Gitmo existed, & more than once. So the standing we have in the world seems more like another avenue for blaming America, even when we're clearly the victims.) But I don't like big brother either and indefinite confinement for uncharged people freaks me out. Big brother usually comes most effectively when there is justified fear of an enemy.

As a veteran of the Army JAGC, I also know that regardless of what you believe about civil rights in general, there is such a thing as the Law of War. (Hence the Geneva Convention). As far as Islamic anger at us, all I can say is, 9-11 happened before Gitmo opened. We've been hated a long time. As weird as that is for most of us, I finally asked, "what would it take to make the fundamentalist Islamics like us?" And I can't find an answer to that question that I can live with. I don't want to convert to their faith or die, don't want to wear head coverings, be treated the way their women are treated, or lose freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to assemble, the right to divorce, use birth control, vote, own a business, "expose" my bare arms or ankles, etc. Frankly, the truth is that we'd have to be like them, for them to like us. They want to destroy us. It's not a policy choice they disagree with (that is merely one on a long list of Bin Laden's grievances against "Satan America" and our western cohorts). But onward the President went, deciding to close Gitmo without a place to put the remaining detainees. Some were shipped for "rehabilitation" to Saudi Arabia. Had Bush done that, the left would have screamed about a conspiracy, a la Micheal Moore, and his "fat cats with oil" conspiracy theory, which is forgotten now that it's Obama allowing the Saudis some interesting benefits. The left ignored this completely and guess what? 90% of the detainees who were transferred to Saudi Arabia were "rehabilitated" within months, and were set FREE!....including some seriously bad guys...where's the outrage? Oh, I forgot...the double standard of the left. (True, there are conservative talk show hosts on tv and the radio who are obviously biased against the President. We know. But they identify their belief system and admit bias! Who on the left does that? I can't think of one on television who admits a bias in favor of the liberal agenda. They're sincerely unaware of their bias, because their arrogance leads them to think they're just "Right"...)

For the record, Gitmo's environment is not that of a dungeon in the middle ages, despite the media's claims. The Red Cross is right there and there are more rights and privileges given to those detainees than the Geneva Convention requires of non-combatants...(That status matters, b/c these are NOT prisoner's of war...POW's are in recognized conflicts between nations, or declared wars, and belong to a nation's armed forces. That's why there's a different category for these folks and we did not invent this. For centuries, spies and assassins were on their own if they got caught. This was so even if they were authorized by their government, to do what they did. The Law of War has long recognized that there are exceptions to the rights given to regular POWs and they had these types of killers in mind. No "rights to due process" exist for them in the real world with that. As the saying goes, "only in America"...)

So here we are. Gitmo is closing and the rest of the detainees are to be sent HERE to our country, where Miranda rights and attorneys at tax payers expense, and all the rest, will be accorded to them. So if they revealed incriminating information to us without all those American rights being afforded to them, the evidence will be suppressed. Great news folks...The attorney general told us he was confident of convictions because he expected guilty pleas...Ooops surprise, they want to speak out about their feelings and desires and their thoughts about Bush (never mind that their crimes were in his eigth month of office and during the Clinton years as well). I'm not so sure the attorney general knew what he was talking about.

The primary & fundamental problem with America's handling of terrorism in the 90's with Clinton as President, was that he treated acts of war, as crimes to be handled by the Department of Justice. It failed! We had the USS Cole, the embassies, the World Trade Center in 1993 (by the same people who did 9/11 !!) as crimes for prosecution in civilian court. That murderer is housed, fed and medically cared for with our tax dollars! And he inspired the subsequent attack again, on the same target, on 9-11. What should we have learned? We were laughing stocks to him, then, so what will happen with this?

Of course there are security problems to trying the 9-11 terrorists in NYC and housing them in Illinois. They'll create a circus atmosphere for the victim's families and mock us in front of the world; not the result Obama so wanted, but he was naive in that endeavor. A naivete that will be the source of coming problems beyond our sight now.

Putting the rest of the Gitmo detainess near the President's hometown, just smacks of corruption. A prison in the home of the President and Rod Blogoyovich, which isn't even completed yet. But it got selected as the most secure facility? No one has a problem with that? What are the odds that the prison would be in his home state? I submit it'll be Obama's Halliburton. (Follow the money).  

They also assure of us security, but they can't figure out who gets into the White House! They assured of us convictions, (as if that was sufficient reassurance or justification) but already the defendants are arguing for their day in court, as if they're owed one.

And for those who think there's an intangible benefit to our world wide image by closing Gitmo, I say, maybe so. But it hardly seems likely it will turn the hearts of terrorists. They won't suddenly like us.  And even if world opinion shifted some, so what? That cannot outweigh the security risks to our own people, and the mockery of our judicial system that these trials will surely entail. Reflect on the victim's families a bit more too. Can you imagine hearing the killers of your children (or parents or loved ones) airing their grievances with our foreign policy and calling us murderers? How that adds to the esteem other nations hold us in, is beyond me.


Would any other country have gone so far out of its' naive way to show them that just by being nice, we can all get along? Well good luck. A lot of the evidence against the terrorists may be suppressed due to the lack of Miranda rights being given to them b/c they were not necessary. War criminals don't get the same rights as American Citizens tried in our civilian courts, and shouldn't be.  Treating these war criminals as if they're citizens is stupid and will result in some acquittals of very guilty, very evil creatures. We're compounding their original crimes, with our stupidity and arrogance.  Jeanninespitfire@gmail.com