By Mr. Curmudgeon
One year ago today, a newly inaugurated President Obama’s fist Oval Office ceremony was the signing of an executive order mandating the closure of the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The effeminate Euro Intelegencia hailed it as a triumph – that is until Obama asked them to take some of the poor misunderstood waifs off his hands. One year later, Gitmo is still in operation. Hard reality, it turns out, is not subject to softheaded presidential executive orders.
Janet “the system worked” Napolitano told reporters during her European visit, “We have known for some time now that it [the deadline to close Gitmo] was not going to be met because assembling the information about detainees and moving them out of Guantanamo is very difficult and we have to do it in the right way.”
Like Obama’s health care and other issues, closing Guantanamo is unpopular with the American people. According to the Gallup organization, nearly three-quarters of Americans want Washington to keep Guantanamo open for business. They are also partial to jihadists facing former Vice President Dick Cheney’s watery question and answer sessions. Then another reality threatens to delay the president’s Gitmo closing – Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass). According to the Washington Post, “Republican Scott Brown's startling Senate win in Massachusetts, propelled in part by his opposition to Obama's terror-fighting approach, has weakened Obama's legislative hand just as Congress is demanding answers about security. And although health care reform is the matter most immediately affected by Obama's sudden loss of the minimum 60 votes he needs in the Senate on big legislation, his entire agenda will be reshaped in some way by the political fallout.”
The “fallout” is already taking effect. Sen. Dian Feinstein (D-Ca), of the Senate Intelligence Committee, immerged from a closed-door session investigating the Justice Department’s decision to treat the Christmas Day underpants-bomber as a criminal suspect and not an enemy combatant. “This man is not going to be set free, one way or another,” said Feinstein of failed bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmatallab. Feinstein, who authored legislation to close Guantanamo shortly after Obama became president, is now starting to distance herself from her president and her recent past. “Feinstein said she was not suggesting the administration move Abdulmutallab to military detention,” reported the Post, “only that it could do so.” It may be a short matter of time before frightened Democrats stop suggesting and start demanding. Fox News reported that White House advisors are debating whether to reverse the administration’s decision to try high-level Al Qaeda combatants as common criminals in New York City. Gitmo may have some life in her yet.
0 comments on "Guantanamo, One Year Later"