Obama '08?

old europe wrote:

Go ahead and laugh. Not a laughing matter.

Go ahead and laugh. Not a laughing matter.

okie wrote:

Go ahead and laugh. Not a laughing matter.

Well, seriously then: what are you afraid of if the Guantanamo inmates are detained somewhere within the United States rather than in Cuba?

Why do you call it fear?

Do you lock your doors when you arent home?
Do you lock your car door when you park it somewhere?

If you answer yes to those, then why?

What are you afraid of?
Doesnt that also make you a "pussy", since you are displaying an irrational fear of an unknown someone?

Since Gitmo was built for that purpose, then why do you want it closed?
It was built for one purpose, and its fulfilling that purpose.

Report: Gates Pushed To Shut Down Gitmo

In sharp contrast to his predecessor, Defense Secretary Robert Gates reportedly tried to shut down Guantanamo.

Gates, who succeeded Donald Rumsfeld last year, pushed in his first weeks as defense secretary for closing the detention center at the U.S. naval base in Cuba, arguing that its image was so tainted that any military trials there would be viewed as illegitimate, according to The New York Times.

He was overruled, however, after Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and other government lawyers objected to moving detainees to the United States, the Times said in a report posted on its Web site Thursday night. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice agreed with Gates, but Vice President Dick Cheney's office took the same position as Gonzales, the report said, citing unidentified senior administration officials.

Probably explains the plan to have Gates remain.

mysteryman wrote:

Since Gitmo was built for that purpose, then why do you want it closed?
It was built for one purpose, and its fulfilling that purpose.

There are questions as to it's legality.

Let them go in America or wherever they want to go. Why do you think this is such a big deal? It isn't as if the people are going to launch into the next phase of their Grand Plot To Kill Us All...

Cycloptichorn

And what about the detainees whose own countries dont want them back?
The US has tried to release some of the detainees, but no other country will take them.
What do we do with them?

Germany Considers Taking in Guantanamo Prisoners

Germany said on Monday it would consider offering asylum to foreign inmates at the American-run Guantanamo Bay prison camp which US President-elect Barack Obama wants to close.

Thomas Steg, German deputy government spokesman, said on Monday, Dec 22 Germany strongly backed Obama's plans to shutter the detention facility and said Berlin was assessing the possibility of accepting inmates who declined to return to their home countries.

"In our view Guantanamo must be closed on legal and humanitarian grounds, in terms of international law and human rights, and for moral reasons," Steg told reporters in Berlin.

Steg emphasized that it is up to the US to find a place for inmates.

"We would need to, and want to, examine this issue when the United States has made clear what its specific plans and timeline are," Steg said.

"If we begin to review such closure plans and take a stance, then it can only be in a European context based on a discussion with all member states," he said, adding that Germany would reject any "side deals, swaps or conditions" put forward by Washington linked to handing over Guantanamo prisoners.

Hamburg willing to take in prisoners

US President-elect Barack Obama made it clear that he wants to shutter the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which holds 255 men arrested on suspicion of fighting for al-Qaeda or the Taliban.

Yet many of the men have languished in the detention center of the US Naval Base for years without being charged. About 50 are now thought to be innocent, but have not been released because they would face torture or death if sent back to their countries of origin. Yet many do not want to live in the United States.

Rights groups have calls on EU countries to offer asylum to Guantanamo detainees. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has long publicly advocated closing the camp for terror suspects, situated at a US navy base in Cuba.

In a surprise move, Hamburg's interior minister Christoph Ahlhaus signaled on Monday that his state might be willing to take in Guantanamo prisoners. Ahlhaus told the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper that prisoners who were shown to be innocent should be given the option of coming to Germany.

Germany not "dumping ground"

Germans have been particularly interested in the plight of the Uighurs, a Muslim minority in Central Asia. Germany has a small Uighur community, many of whom live in Munich.

Hamburg's Ahlhaus and fellow Christian Democrat Guenter Nooke, the government's human rights envoy, are among the first high-ranking German politician to publicly call for Germany to consider taking in some of Guantanamo prisoners.

Even so, both politicians have been careful to say that Germany should not become a dumping ground for unwanted prisoners.

Ruprecht Polenz, chair of the foreign relations committee in the Bundestag, pointed out that just because a country wants to "get rid of someone" does not mean that person would automatically qualify for German asylum. Yet it could be enough if the Guantanamo prisoner had previously lived in Germany, Polenz said.

Only those with a defeatist, anti-America attitude want Gitmo closed.

"Ahlhaus told the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper that prisoners who were shown to be innocent should be given the option of coming to Germany."

I imagine if that had been shown, or could be shown, they would already be free?

So are you going to incarcerate them in Germany or turn them loose into society in Germany?

If incarcerated, how is that better than Gitmo? And if you turn them loose without assurance of innocence, how do you than explain any further crimes on humanity on the citizens of Germany? Just thought you may wish to ponder those questions, oe?

I read the article, and it makes no sense.

You pretend as if there was no filtering process at Gitmo, high risk, low risk, etc.

Even some of the ones already deemed low enough risk to turn loose have been caught trying to kill or killing other innocent people.

So how do you pretend to run this court system to determine innocence, where and how, oe?

Sure if someone is in fact for sure innocent as far as can be determined so far, we would have turned them loose already, and if their own country did not want them, you have to ask yourself, why, oe, has that ever occurred to you?

You pretend as if the article solves the problem, and it solves nothing.

You pretend as if the article solves the problem, and it solves nothing.

Germany says it is considering accepting prisoners released from the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay.
The foreign ministry said it was looking into the legal, political and practical implications of such a move.
...
About 50 inmates are said to have been cleared for release, but the US cannot repatriate them due to the risk of mistreatment.
For example, the US says a group of Muslim Uighurs from western China's Xinjiang province can be freed.
But the only country willing to take them is China where, the men fear, they could face persecution as dissidents - so they need somewhere else to go.
Portugal has already offered to take some of the detainees and urged fellow European Union nations to follow its lead.
...German deputy government spokesman Thomas Steg said that the issue of accepting detainees would be addressed when the US had set out specific plans and a timeline for closing the camp.
"If we begin to review such closure plans and take a stance, then it can only be in a European context based on a discussion with all member states," he said.
No conditions could be placed on any handover, he added.
But, said a foreign ministry spokesman, Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier had made it clear that he did not want the planned closure to fail because there was no-one willing to take prisoners who could not return home.