Posted by
raymondr612001 on Tuesday, May 19, 2009 2:58:53 AM
05-19-09
532 Days to the 2010 Congressional Mid-Term Elections.
During his 2008 Presidential Campaign, Barack Obama pledged to shut down the Terrorist Detention Facility at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station in Cuba (AKA "Gitmo") and end the Military Tribunal System for prosecuting alledged terror suspects established by the Bush administration. Obama also said he would allow the release of photographs of detainees supposedly being abused by U.S. Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Human rights groups as well as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) were hoping that the publication of these photos would show proof that prisoners in U.S. custody were being tortured during the Bush era. Now Obama has decided to reverse at least two of those decisions by ordering the military tribunals to commence and refusing to release the photographs. Both of these decisions have angered Obama supporters such as Move-On.Org and the ACLU (which filed suit to have the detainee photos released). One ACLU attorney has accused the Obama administration of now being complicit in the Bush administration torture policies.
Either Obama has decided to do a Flip-Flop or he has come to realize it's a different game when you are calling the plays than it is jeering the coach from the cheap seats. Without the tribunals, all any defense council in a civilian court would have to do is demand that the government either release classified material that would possibly compromise national security or drop charges against a detainee and release him/her. As for the photographs, all their release would do is pour gasoline on an already inflamed anti-American opinion in the middle east as well as the rest of the world. In case many of you have forgotten, we are still at war, whether the Obama administration wants to acknowledge that reality or not. Now, if he just changed his mind about shutting down "Gitmo."
"Enough Said!"