[Peace-discuss] Bastard

[C. G. Estabrook]

Obama approved military budget that stops Guantanamo closure
09. January 2011. | 09:58
Source: Tanjug

The United Stated President Barack Obama has signed a 2011 defense spending 
bill, stating he would work to repeal provisions making it harder to close the 
prison.

The United Stated President Barack Obama has signed a 2011 defense spending 
bill, stating he would work to repeal provisions making it harder to close the 
prison.

The new bill bars Guantanamo suspects from being brought to the United States 
for trial. It includes a provision that bars the use of funds, authorized by the 
law, for use in the transfer of detainees from the detention facility at 
Guantanamo Bay into the United States.

"Despite my strong objection to these provisions... I have signed this Act 
because of the importance of authorizing appropriations for, among other things, 
our military activities in 2011," Obama, who pledged during his 2008 
presidential campaign to close Guantanamo, stated.

"My administration will work with the Congress to seek repeal of these 
restrictions, will seek to mitigate their effects, and will oppose any attempt 
to extend or expand them in the future," Obama stressed.

http://www.emg.rs/en/news/world/143847.html


Obama and Guantanamo: A chronology of his broken promise
July 2, 2010 |  2:02 am

Aug. 2, 2007: Sen. Barack Obama makes a simple promise he will often repeat to 
loud domestic -- and foreign -- applause during his $750 million presidential 
campaign:

     As President, I will close Guantanamo, reject the Military Commissions Act 
and adhere to the Geneva Conventions. Our Constitution and our Uniform Code of 
Military Justice provide a framework for dealing with the terrorists.

Jan. 22, 2009: With the official flourish of a newly-inaugurated president and a 
platoon of retired generals for a living backdrop, as one of his very first 
official Oval Office acts, Barack Obama signs an executive order to close the 
Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility within one year:

     This is me following through on not just a commitment I made during the 
campaign, but I think an understanding that dates back to our founding fathers, 
that we are willing to observe core standards of conduct, not just when it's 
easy, but also when it's hard.

Critics warn the complex closure cannot be accomplished by waving a magic wand. 
They say that other countries once so eager to denounce the Guantanamo prison 
are unlikely to be equally eager to accept accused terrorists from there. And 
that finding and rehabbing an alternative mainland incarceration facility for 
the remaining hardcore prisoners is expensive, duplicative, likely politically 
unpopular and virtually impossible to accomplish within the promised one 
year.Guantanamo detention facility

July 21, 2009: The White House grants its Guantanamo closing commission an extra 
six months to study the situation.

Dec. 16, 2009: President Obama signs a presidential memorandum ordering Atty. 
Gen. Eric Holder and Defense secretary Robert Gates to acquire the state prison 
in Thompson, Illinois as the $350 million replacement for Guantanamo.

Administration officials are forced to acknowledge the obvious, that closing the 
facility in Cuba will not occur in 2009 but will spill over into 2010, possibly 
even late 2010.

Jan. 22, 2010: The one year promise anniversary. No closing. No ceremony.

May 19, 2010: The House Armed Services Committee, controlled by members of....

...the president's own Democratic party, absolutely prohibits any opening of a 
Guantanamo detention replacement facility within these United States. To 
underline its ban, the powerful committee erupts in an unusual display of 
bipartisanship: The prohibition vote is unanimous.

June 25, 2010: In a Friday bad news dump guaranteed to attract minimal 
mid-summer attention, the N.Y. Times exclusively announces and excuses the 
broken Obama promise by blaming political opposition from unnamed parties (but 
you can guess which one) and citing the press of more important national 
priorities anyway:

     Stymied by political opposition and focused on competing priorities, the 
Obama administration has sidelined efforts to close the Guantanamo prison, 
making it unlikely that President Obama will fulfill his promise to close it 
before his term ends in 2013...
     "...the administration is not putting a lot of energy behind their position 
that I can see,” said Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat....

Quoting an unidentified "senior administration official speaking on condition of 
anonymity to discuss internal thinking on a sensitive issue," the news 
organization says, "The president can't just wave a magic wand and say that 
Gitmo will be closed."

Friday, July 2, 2010: To commemorate the one-week anniversary of the Times' 
exculpation of Obama's oft-repeated campaign promise, The Ticket publishes a 
chronology of the Guantanamo detention facility's non-closing.

To be Continued, no doubt.

-- Andrew Malcolm