28, February 2016 Close
Guantánamo
President Obama is right to call for the closure of Gitmo.
President George W. former secretaries of state Condoleezza Rice and Colin
Powell, and former secretaries of defense, Robert Gates and Leon Panetta, and
many others have called for the closure of the detention facility. It has long
been a dark stain in America’s treatment of prisoners and continues to serve as
a massive recruitment for our enemies. To incarcerate large numbers of
prisoners without due process is a complete abdication of our core values as a
nation. The prisoners who have been declared innocent of any crimes should be
released immediately – with compensation. The remaining prisoners should be
tried in U.S. courts with proper legal counsel. Congress should stop
stonewalling Obama’s efforts which is costing us billions of dollars and is a
major threat to our national security. How can we justify spending $2.5 million
per detainee?
During the Bush administration, 779 people were brought to
Guantánamo, all without charge. Over time we’ve learned that most were innocent
and were incarcerated to provide comfort to the Bush-Chaney cabal that progress
was being made in the ‘war on terror.’ Only 10 were convicted of any crime by
military commissions. The five co-conspirators charged with planning the Sept.
11 attacks have still not gone to trial.
It is no coincidence that ISIS dresses its prisoners in orange
jump suits before conducting their ghastly beheadings. We continue to lose the
moral high ground by keeping Gitmo open.
No comments:
Post a Comment