A campaign fact sheet on counter-terrorism said this about Obama's promise to close the detention facility at Guantanamo: "Guantanamo has become a recruiting tool for our enemies. The legal framework behind Guantanamo has failed completely, resulting in only one conviction. President Bush's own Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates (who Obama has since nominated to retain this post), wants to close it. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, wants to close it. The first step to reclaiming America's standing in the world has to be closing this facility. As president, Barack Obama will close the detention facility at Guantanamo."
On his second full day in office, President Obama issued an executive order to review the disposition of prisoners being held at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and ordered that the detention facility be closed within a year.
President Obama advisers are crafting plans to close the Guantanamo Bay prison. But, underscoring the difficult decisions Obama must make to fulfill his pledge of shutting down Guantanamo, the plan could require the creation of a new legal system to handle the classified information inherent in some of the most sensitive cases. According to three advisers participating in the process, Obama is expected to propose a new court system and may appoint a committee to decide how such a court would operate. Some detainees likely would be returned to the countries where they were first captured for further detention or rehabilitation. The rest could probably be prosecuted in U.S. criminal courts, one adviser said. All spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing talks, which have been private.
www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-11-11-obama-guantanamo_N.htm
Should Obama Close down the Guantanamo bay?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I think that this is a tough call. On one hand most Americans want to think that we don't do anything wrong and that we are perfect, on the other hand no one wants these people getting released onto the street which is the fear many Americans hold. I think the the creation of a new court system to deal with this is a great idea. I think that a new court system is the only way every view point on the issue is taken in.
ReplyDeleteI think that Obama’s decision to close Guantanamo Bay in Cuba will lead to complicated outcomes. He is making a good decision of releasing the people that we cannot fully suspect of being involved in “enemy affairs” but we still need a prison or another place to keep other people who could be potential “terroristic threats” to the American populous. Keeping American prisoners in another country, Cuba, does not make America look like the lofty country that we continually promote ourselves to be. I understand that mistreatment of detainees is now under investigation, in relation to the Bush era. The bad treatment of these people should have never occurred, but we should not release them now because they would be able to return to their country and have a reason to hate America even more than they previously could have. Right now I think it is a good idea to close Guantanamo Bay, but I still believe we need to develop other institutions where we can examine threatening individuals.
ReplyDeleteI think that Obama should shut down Guantanamo Bay. It was a bad idea to open it up in the first place. All it did was tourture innocent people who deserve a fair trial. What President Obama should do is persecute the people who are held responsible for touturing these terrorist or innocent terrorist and let the free ones go. Guantanamo Bay is an example of the World War II Japaneeese camps where they were held against their will. The whole prison should be taken down and what they should do with the innocent ones clear their record and with the ones convicted give them to the people who deal with criminals back in their homeland and punish them that way. Let their country deal with them.
ReplyDeleteI believe that his decision to close Guantanamo bay is a bad idea. I agree that we do not have enough evidence for a lot of those that are imprisoned right now so we should release them, but by closing the facility you have to move a number of prisoners to another location. Also we have to create a prison facility within the united states to house these prisoners using up our tax money to build it, and then using it to feed those prisoners. We should not have to pay for the prison and nor should we pay to feed someone who is convicted of harm to the people of our nation. Moving them to a prison within the U.S. boundaries can also cause public safety issues, because if someone wants to free one of those prisoners, or all of them, they will not care how they do it but just to get it done. So no, i do not believe it was a good idea to close Guantanamo Bay especially since he had no where to move those prisoners when he announced that it will be shut down. Where will they stay?
ReplyDeletei believe the idea to close Guantanamo bay is a good idea just not at this time.i think eventually when the economy is better he can worry about that facility. and figure out a way to take the prisoners elsewhere.And at this time there is no where for them to stay and not endanger America..
ReplyDeleteI agree with parts of what other people are replying with. It was Matt Schmidt who said it is unfair to have these people imprisoned, but he used the term "innocent". I believe it was unfair not to hold trials, but these people are a far cry from innocent. The shutting down does present the problem of relocating these people, I would suggest simply changing how Guantanamo Bay is operated.
ReplyDelete