Following Trump’s Lead, Republicans Grow Quiet on Guantánamo

Go figure - after an entire 8 year Obama administration, no new prisoners were added to Guantanamo. In less than 10 months of a trump administration anew prisoner was thrown in behind bars there. A Brig. General in the USMC and a top defense lawyer! Locked up for doing his job! That is trump keeping his promises to continue imprisoning individuals he does not like there. All because the judge wanted to force three civilian lawyers to go against their conscience and return to Guantanamo. http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/11/01/gitmo-judge-sentences-mari... Not a peep about that from the Republicans either.

More legislators should be vocal regarding Guantanamo. Running prisons on foreign soil, not conducting speedy and fair trials, and indefinitely detaining individuals in a way that would not pass American law is not sustainable. Especially, if Americans want to be able to say to the world that we are the leader of free nations that prioritizes the protection of civil liberties equally across the board.

This article ignores the utter mess in Guantanamo, which had just added a new "captive" last week when the top military legal guy threw the top military defense lawyer into jail (turned out to be "confined to quarters--and was out in 3 days) because of the fine mess said top military legal guy made trying to bring a case to trial after spying on the defense lawyers. The defense team of civilian lawyers quit in protest, followed by the senior military defense guy. The guy running the trial has demanded that the civilian defense team be captured and made to participate despite their not representing the accused (by mutual consent). This in a case that has now been dragging on for 16 years without a trial--and appears to be headed to a trial previously seen only in Russia. So, this time, Trump is right: the normal system of justice is faster, cheaper, more just, and more likely to bring defendants to trial. Keeping Guantanamo open for political spite is just another example of Republican malfeasance. They would much rather spend over 10 million per prisoner per year to not resolve the cases there than admit to perhaps being wrong. Worse, they will not just quietly walk away so the adults can fix ti. The rattling noise you hear coming from the direction of Lindsey Graham is the sound of his marbles falling to the floor and rolling irretrievably away.

The military just screwed up the Bergdahl case. Bleeding heart military tribunals giving zero time for desertion cannot be trusted. Try him here.

R pols are manipulative, as I don't think they are stupid.

Racists and hypocrites. Only explanation that Republicans for years vocally opposed President Obama's policy on terrorism but remain silent when Trump follows the same policy.

It is fun, but truly sad, to see proof Republicans prefer anti- Obamaism than national safety, costs, and justice.

Since after 9/11, I have been saying that the federal court system can be as effective, if not more effective, than the military courts to judge terrorists without the image problems of Guantanamo Bay. When will the Republicans apologize for their poor judgment? Why are we giving them a pass?

Guantanamo and the extraordinary rendition that delivered its detainees to it, is a massive moral stain on the US and indeed should be a matter of great shame and embarrassment to the US. Obama’s legacy of cowardice over fulfilling his Guantánamo promise continues unabated. In keeping Guantánamo open Obama has given Trump the opportunity to carry out his promises to start filling it up again. Instead of being hailed as the man who closed Guantánamo he will be reviled as the man who never made a promise he couldn’t break. It would have been a lot harder for Trump to re-open it than it would’ve been for Obama to close it before the election. Perhaps he bowed under pressure from neocon warmongers, once again showing his cowardice by backing down. There might also have been pressure from Hillary Clinton to keep the torture facility open. With a whole lot more wars planned for the presidency she and her acolytes assured themselves was given, she might have needed a torture centre away from prying eyes and without all the bother of tiresome legal constraints. Instead, Obama has gifted both to Trump. Obama never wanted to close it, he wanted to transfer the prisoners to a US prison facility whereby the US would then have indefinite detention on US soil. Obama has always supported indefinite detention. It’s important to remember and continue to remind people that this is an important part of his legacy. Obama institutionalized indefinite detention. “If Obama had done this” LOL

A new name for the Republican Party: The Hypocrisarian-Enabler Party. In one phrase it tells you all you need to know about its core philosophy. The old one was a bald-faced lie.

These Pubs are not liars or hypocrites, they are perpetrators of fraud. Why is this distinction important? Liars and hypocrites have personality disorders. People who commit fraud are criminals. Their lies to undercut Obama were committed to defraud the United States of good governance, ultimately to fraudulently gain power for themselves. Go to YouTube and watch the Monty Python "Dead Parrot" sketch. It's not so funny when you substitute the GOP for a pet store owner and our precious country for a parrot.

The bottom line here is that should be treated according to intl. and American law and not the way they treated their prisoners in the Middle East. The de facto admitted war criminal Bush 2 got down to their level with torture. As to civilian courts or Guantanamo, I had no preference other than above but since the efficiency of the civilian courts seem to be better that is probably the way to go. The closest thing to ISIS is something like the mafia groups, intl. criminals. We have had a great degree of success in trying them in civilian courts.

No one has discussed what happens when terorrists are imprisoned in the US and start cross pollinating our prison populations. I have no love for Gitmo, but I think we need to be very careful mixing some of these actors into a disenfranchised group that is fertile ground for radicalization. Give them justice but let's try to maintain a firewall to isolate their ideology.

In case Americans missed this aspect of the Guantanamo saga; the U.S. government detained another person at Guantanamo Bay this week, the first since 2008. His identity is unusual for a new detainee in that he never fought against the U.S. or pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda. This latest detainee was U.S. Marine Corps Brigadier General John Bake. rHis offense was standing up for the rule of law and being held in contempt by a judge overseeing the military tribunals at Guantanamo. Bush 43 and his neoconservative henchmen messed this situation up and America still is cleaning up that mess. Obviously the endless Global War on Terror was needless prosecuted as typical warfare, in Iraq is was waged on grounds proven false. Then instead of calling captured fighters POWs, the new term enemy combatants was created. Then torture was condoned. Worse was the concept of extraordinary rendition where anyone could be grabbed anywhere and wisked away. And now, 15 years later, there are still "captured", and likely tortured, detainees. Thanks Bush 43 and Cheney and Rummy. Your ugly legacy and mess lives on and you all left America with no answers how to clean it up.

It seems there is no issue on which Republicans are not shamelessly hypocritical in their treatment of Republican versus Democratic leaders.

I would love to see an ongoing big ad-buy with which all of the things Trump and other republicans used to say about things and now what they say. Among other things, it would really confuse their supporters.

Republicans do not care about "effectiveness," or for that matter, justice, fairness, due process, or much else. All they care about is absolute power, and if that comes along with the execrable Trump, then so be it.

Sen. Graham was a competent prosecutor and knows that his logic is faulty. His comments are just grandstanding. This man was not a captured by the US military; acting on his own volition he committed multiple homicides on US soil. Committing him to a military prison merely lends credence to the notion that ISIS and its failed caliphate comprise a nation-state at war with the US.

The entire place would be PERFECT for an inescapable, high security, ultra-luxury Federal Prison. Complete with the Trump Wing. Room Service, 24/7 Satellite TV, SPA toiletries. "you can check-in anytime you want, but you can never leave". Without Judicial Approval, of course. AND, ALL costs to be billed to the Inmates, and paid with confiscated funds. Seriously.

Close Guantanamo and transfer inmates to Rikers Island. When are Trump and the Republicans going to stop mollycoddling suspected terrorists in the balmy Carribean? Past NYT articles have shown that the correction officers at Rikers Island are more than capable of handling such miscreants.

When Obama advocated civilian trials it was heresy. When Trump advocates it, it's gospel. Republicans have developed hypocrisy into a fine art. Add to that their absolute terror at upsetting the Trump base and we see that they are world-class cowards as well. I used to think that there were limits, some sort of a bottom to the brazen lies and shameless hypocrisy of the Gutless Obnoxious Politicians, but no, there is no bottom. When a political party is absolutely shameless, there are no moral or ethical constraints, and they are free to run amok destroying ACA, Medicare, the environment, women's rights, civil rights, voters' rights, gay rights, and on and on. All this while the 1% laughs all the way to the bank. Literally.

Guantanamo is an embarrassment and a drain on our treasury. It is ineffective and serves no purpose in national security. The only reason it is open is because Republicans wouldn't let President Obama shut it down for utterly, completely partisan reasons. Are we going to hold people there until the lease runs out? As the article (and President Obama) claims, the U.S. courts are prisons have been far more effective in dealing with real terrorists. The ambiguity of the Guantanamo proceedings have resulted in many innocent prisoners spending years in jail for no crime--festering and growing bitter against the U.S. At the same time real terrorists have held on without effective trials. Aside from its ineffectiveness, Guantanamo has become a symbol of American islamophobia throughout the planet. If its denizens had been tried in court this would never have been the case. Every time the U.S. raises the specter of human rights, the immediate response is Gitmo and Guantanamo. We embarrass ourselves by our hypocrisy. Let's close this silly place down. Let Guantanamo revert to being a military base and finally have some effective dealing with criminal terrorists through our rigorous court system and our high-security prisons.

This is yet another example of the wisdom of our former President Obama juxtaposed with the utterly dangerous and ignorant Trump. As we watch every good Mr. Obama has done from heath care to climate control to justice and equality be diminished or demolished, we have to wonder how many more rights will be trampled on. This piece mentions Congress and how the GOP is suddenly silent. But if we have learned anything, it is that this cowardly group if not silent is spewing and enacting hatred just like its boss.

"Sir(s), have you no shame!?" No? No.

The Dems need to nominate and help elect Beyoncé as the next POTUS. I can already hear my Republican friends laughing at the absurdity of such an idea. They’d argue that she has zero political experience, that she’s weak on substantive policy making, and that her past life in the entertainment business is a political liability. If she indicated that a suspect in an on-going terror investigation be put to death before they’d had a fair trial per our Constitution, she’d be lambasted as an unstable, out of touch leader. If she unabashedly ignored any and all valid feedback of her job performance, Republicans in Congress and elsewhere would cry foul and say she was acting irresponsibly and out line with the expectations and norms of our Nation’s highest office. What about the Republican response to even the tiniest inkling of foreign involvement intended to help her get elected over her Republican contender? At a minimum, the GOP would certainly accuse Democrats in Congress of diminishing/ignoring the appearance of her incompetence by instead focusing on fulfilling the promises of her Liberal agenda by any means necessary. How is any of what I just described any more ludicrous than the daily goings on of Trump & the GOP of the 115th Congress? Venerable Republicans and many of their constituents should be called out on their willful ignorance and the obvious double standard in play when they justify behaviors in their own party that they would never tolerate from across the isle.

Everybody saw him do it and he admitted it. It will take a minimum of 3 years before he is convicted. The appeals will last 10 years. During that time everyone hopes that no individual jurors goes nuts And hope that no judge goes off the reservation to make a statement so he/she gets name in the papers. In capital punishment cases it takes 20 years before the felon is executed. That is why Trump said the American System of Justice is a joke.

While it is undoubtedly true that we have convicted these terrorists in our courts, what does it really get us?? I am no soft cushy when it comes to these trials. But let’s face it, given today’s environment - it will really take a gutsy jury NOT to convict one who has been so charged. First, in many cases they are “foreigners.” Second, their lawyers most part are just trying to spare their lives and not fight the case. So, in my opinion - some of these who are enemy combatants are best treated in a military court. We just had a good case of that Sergeant who was given a “right” sentence - in my opinion - not withstanding what the POTUS believes in. So, I am not pursuaded that the civil courts are the preferred places of trial - when the charges are really acts of war. Perhaps, it is time for the Congress to create a special court system for the terrorists - as it appears to be a long and perhaps, a very long war. The Congress should designate the Pentagon as the agency responsible for trials. They have a well developed case law - and have facilities to hold these prisoners so that society at large is not threatened. I do not see that American values are strengthened solely by trials in a civil court. Our military has shown that they are quite capable. The Guantanamo trials have become a farce because they have been politicised by having civil courts including the Supreme Court.

“Would love to send the NYC terrorist to Guantánamo but statistically that process takes much longer than going through the Federal system,” Mr. Trump Tweeted. Trump knows nothing about the. Federal or Military Tribunal. He does not read or understands how anything works.

Still dwelling on campaign vows, I read. Still hasn’t sunk in yet that the election is over. Denial certainly seems to be a much harder habit to break than opiates, it seems. Just try cold turkey and see what happens.

"Civilian courts have been ruthlessly effective in bringing terrorists to justice, while the military commission system has floundered." Yeah, the GOP hates that reality. Also remember how the GOP lied about the dire perils of trying terrorists in courtrooms on the mainland. Instead they continued to advocate for the legal and moral swamp of Guantanamo.

We Americans are blessed with a president too stupid to understand why he is not in operating charge of the United States system of justice. That is to say, President Trump cannot get past the ABC of his country's justice system. Why, then, should anyone look to him for insight on the use of this country's incarceration system for military justice? If he can't grasp ABC, he certainly can't master XYZ. For Pete's sake, Trump can't even understand why 100 per cent of Americans laugh out loud when he calls someone else a liar (OK, subtract the even dumber Bannonites, so make that 99 percent). The most complicated thing Trump can understand is how he combs his hair, and there is not much hope he'll get beyond that in the next three years of his Russian-leased presidency.

The existence of Gitmo prison is proof the republican party does not believe in America or its founding principles. Look at how hard they worked to turn the Constitution into toilet paper so they could violate it. They simply are no longer an American political party. They might as well be a foreign occupying force for all the harm they do this nation. There is no wonder they are not shocked or awed at the Trump teams connections with Russia, they're all in on it with Trump Look at Sessions clearly a high level conspirator with the Russians we know of 3 times he lied to hide this yet there is nothing but equivocation in the GOP.

as I understand it Gitmo was a Bush invention and has been an embarrassment since it was created - so the less said about it the better.

Look in the dictionary next to the word "hypocrite," and you will find the photo of a Republican.

Yet another example of the validity of the Stephen Colbert maxim: “Reality has a liberal bias.”

While it’s pretty clear that the suspect is guilty, we still have a system whereby a suspect is innocent until proven guilty. How can you square that with a proclamation that he’s a terrorist and needs to be tried at Guantanamo? Cart before the horse.

Thank you for reporting the facts about successful prosecutions of terror suspects in the federal courts and thank you also for reporting the facts about Republican partisanship on this issue.

As far as I'm concerned- Terrorists [foreign or domestic] who commit despicable acts against humanity have already forfeited their human rights and need to be sent away to places like Guantanamo. I didn't buy the Obama argument that the facility is "too expensive" to operate- especially when the U.S. military currently funds over 750 military bases and "installations" in well over 150 countries. The money is there to keep these people locked up forever- and that's fine by me.

Two tier justice is a very bad idea. Terrorists are criminals, not authorized agents of any legitimate government. If they were, they would be owed the protections required by the Geneva Conventions for captured soldiers or diplomats.

If a Republican does anything, it’s OK. Hypocrits they have been and remain. Shows the lack of honesty of Republicans and the people who vote for them.

In fact, Trump gave Republicans half a loaf; he didn't endorse sending the accused to Gitmo, but he endorsed depriving him of fair trial right in domestic courts. Basically, it is some Gitmo At Home. Republicans invented Gitmo as an exception to due process, but now they are letting the exception swallow the rule. Exactly why we should be worried about exceptions and Republicans.

The implicit recognition of the GOP that the makeshift "justice" system at Guantanamo has been such a total failure compared to the unexpected success of the federal court system in handling the prosecution of terrorists is a welcome change even if it comes belatedly as the GOP once again demonstrates itself to be driven by rank partisanship above all else. The greatest "success" of Gitmo has proven to be that as recognized by Senator John McCain and few other Republican it has served foremost as a most effective worldwide terrorist recruiting billboard. It obviously is taken as proof of the hypocrisy of the US when deemed expedient without even public debate as it tosses aside judicial and human rights it claims to hold so dear and used as justification for the US role as global moral arbiter. The absurdity of Gitmo "justice" this past week was made abundantly clear by the prosecution of a USS Cole bombing suspect now stretching into decades not even close to a result except now the crazy sentencing of a Marine Major General lawyer to Gitmo confinement screams out that this contrived "justice" system is totally unworkable. Given its obvious absolute failure discourages one to learn that Sen. Lindsey Graham is perhaps its most vocal champion. Sadly all to often just when one nearly is lulled into believing that Sen. Graham is one of the most publicly honest and reasonable among his party colleagues he does not fail to remind one that he is, after all, just another Republican.