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Syndicate
No kidding. Hope springs eternal. Change comes with the fall:
Guantanamo won't close by January - Obama
Of course, given that this joker hasn't kept one single promise (at least, not the good ones), he might be lying this time too... Watch for Guantanamo to close in December!
ETA: Oh, hang on - this is really cool - look at this smug group of thugs, last January, when Obama signed an "executive order" to close Guantanamo by this January:
It looks as if the good ol' boys approve of what their token colored fella has done.
Easily summarized:-
McKeon Asks For Information On 9/11 Terrorists
Ya good luck with that, Bucky boy.
"Heresy cannot be destroyed unless heretics are destroyed and ... their defenders and [supporters] are destroyed,..." Pope Gregory IX, 1232
Guantanamo: The Definitive Prisoner List (Updated 2010)
http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2010/01/04/guantanamo-the-definitive-pr...
"I hope that the list and its references provide a useful antidote to the current scaremongering regarding the failed Christmas plane bomber, Omar Farouk Abdulmutallab, and his alleged ties with one - just one - of the 574 prisoners released from Guantanamo, in a Yemen based al-Qaeda cell.
This purported connection is being used by those who want the evil stain of Guantanamo to endure forever...but also to argue that no more of the Yemenis - who make up nearly half of the remaining prisoners - should be released even though the ex prisoner in question is a Saudi, even though no more than a dozen or so of the 574 prisoners released have gone on to have any involvement whatsoever with terrorism, and even though all of these were released during the presidency of George W Bush.."
Andy Worthington wrote:
Worthington condemns the inquisition and torture etc. But he doesn't mention the fact that confessions obtained by torture are worthless and not to be confused with legally obtained evidence. Such nuances of democracy are difficult concepts for most on the political right to grasp.
And then there is tidbit about Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's obvious guilt after having confessed to Al Jazeera's Yosri Fouda. It's a foregone conclusion at that point. Except that Chaim Kupferberg says KSM was one of several patsies fitted up for masterminding 9/11. And apparently Yosri Fouda is a self-admitted prolific liar.
"I do not really believe there is such a thing as al-Qaida, the organization; there is al-Qaida, the mind-set" -Yosri Fouda
It's not good to believe professional liars. Reality check:
Obama signs law to keep Guantanamo open
Translation for decent human beings: "If I don't agree to sign this law, they won't let me send more soldiers to murder people in Afghanistan."
Thanks, Obama. Imagine, we could have had McCain.
There seems to be no end to the nuttery on this issue:
http://news.antiwar.com/2011/01/18/rep-mckeon-vows-to-keep-gitmo-open/
Certifiable imo. Didn't the Nazis at least allow the Red Cross to inspect the luxurious living conditions in the holiday camps for Jews and other terrorists? They could at least put on a show for the sake of propagandizing the issue. Operating on a need to know basis, and the world doesn't need to know apparently.
Guantanamo military trials resume
excerpt:
President Barack Obama approved Monday the resumption of military trials for detainees at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, ending a two-year ban.
It was the latest acknowledgement that the detention facility Obama had vowed to shut down within a year of taking office will remain open for some time to come.
"I strongly believe that the American system of justice is a key part of our arsenal in the war against al-Qaeda and its affiliates, and we will continue to draw on all aspects of our justice system — including Article III courts — to ensure that our security and our values are strengthened," the president said in a statement. Article III courts are civilian federal courts.
Under Obama's order, Defence Secretary Robert Gates will rescind his January 2009 ban against bringing new cases against the terror suspects at the detention facility. Closure of the facility has become untenable because of questions about where terror suspects would be held.
Another in a long line of broken promises.
"It is virtually impossible to imagine how one closes Guantanamo in light of this executive order," said Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. "In a little over two years, the Obama administration has done a complete about-face."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/07/AR201103...
Yeah, sure thing, abnormal, right on. Meanwhile, I think I may have been right about closing it after every detainee is dead, maybe:
Guantánamo inmate becomes ninth detainee to die at prison camp
Gitmo's a disgrace. it was a disgrace when the yanks, having had their mafia kleptocracy overthrown, didn't give it back.
And its a disgrace now for the myriad reasons listed above. If Eichmann could get a reasonably fair trail in public, then so should everyone else.
Gitmo stands for torture, and shitting on an array of human and legal rights; period.
Now can we, on a progressive board, refrain from using disgusting terms like "token colored fella?" or reprinting OBVIOUSLY racist photoshops, OBVIOUSLY from far right sites: the world apology tour (a refrain of the teabaggers)??? the oversized bling chain???
Huh, huh. Its ok for us to use the words and the images, we're the good guys. So what if we're using a term that used to scrawled all over toilets and water fountains in Capetown and Alabama?
Jesus Christ, Have some shame. I dont care if it is 4 years old. Where have the mods been on this one? Out for a smoke?
Here is one of my favourite images of Obama. I hope it is progressive enough for you. The man is a murderous tool of the military security complex that runs Washington and is trying to control the world. I don't fucking care what colour he is he is just as evil as the alternative when it comes to murder. Yup a WEEKLY KILL LIST is how a peace prize winner should act. Heaven forbid anyone should make fun of his Nobel Prize. You did know the bling was a medal didn't you?
http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/what-obama-has-wrought
I also like this one.
http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/freedom-rider-democrats-show-th...
No problem with those. And I'm not wrong.
I know what the Nobel Prize looks like. I also know what a rope chain looks like. I can also do a google image search and see the kinds of far right sites that this image has been distributed on.
Charming.
Hillary's just as guilty as he is. Should we dust off every misogynistic epithet too?
Tactics matter.
I think the term 'progressive board' must be taken with more than a few grains of salt, given that progressives and their positions are regularly attacked/reviled while right-wing, reactionary positions in support of imperialist war or US imperial aims, Zionism are regularly espoused here...
Sure. Let's go the same way as the Galloway thread. If its our ally saying it, lets not call him on it, lets DEFEND it. When it becomes clear the behaviour is reprehensible, we wont be adult enough to say "Yeah, actually, George was a complete pig on this one" we'll just go silent. Never admit error, never set a standard for ourselves a little higher than that which we oppose.
I wanted Obama to pick Condelesa Rice as his running mate the first time around because even before he was elected it was evident he was going to be a war President.
So you think the writers at Black Agenda are racist and not progressive. I guess you know best since from the heights of your bully pulpit you can see everything clearly.
What's wrong with you. My response is there:
No problem with those.
And McCain wasn't? :)
Woohoo, a Noops sighting! Welcome back and how have you been?
Just because he is one doesn't mean his opponent would not also have been one. When people wrap themselves in the progressive mantle I feel that people on the left need to point out their hypocrisy. The Republicans are nasty war mongers but at least they don't pretend to be people of peace.
Thanks Unionist, I've been just fine. I hope you're well too. Actually I have been on and off here occasionally the past few months. :)
Gitmo Hunger Strike: 'Prisoners Put Their Lives On The Line In A Medieval Torture Chamber'
http://rt.com/op-edge/guantanamo-hunger-strike-opinion-388/
"The prisoners' lawyers, along with other experts and former detainees, are sounding the alarm over the inmates' critical condition. 'They are indeed threatening their own lives, putting their lives on the line in this heroic effort to express a sense of autonomy, outrage at being imprisoned at what can be characterized as nothing less than an American sort-of medieval torture chamber,' anthropologist Mark Mason, who studies the cultural factors behind human suffering told RT."
I wonder what the cultural factors are behind Canadians wilful indifference to such imperial barbarism?
Hunger Strike Cases Surge at Guantanamo
Never forget that the head of these fascist torturers is the liar Obama. He's visiting his best friend Netanyahu, no doubt to work out lists of more detainees.
Jeez, are they still there at Gitmo? By gum I'll bet the inquisition has given them mind transplants aboard a UFO years ago. They're prolly ready to confess to the Nazi bombing of Pearl Harbor by now. tsk tsk
Torture has never had anything to do with seeking truth. Not during Pope Gregory's time and most certainly not today.
The fruits of torture were always to serve a purpose for persecuting "heretics"/opposition to oppressive and corrupt regimes then, and the same is true today with a lot of 9/11 propaganda insulating a military dictatorship from the truth.
What a load of horseshit twas.
On top of all else it is an occupation of another country's territory no more defensible than any other.
Obama: killing hope and people the old school way.
It;s closed down already ( that is, the State Department office for closing it down).
150 million to refurbish it for present and future political prisoners.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/06/obama-promise-close-guantanamo-worse
http://news.antiwar.com/2013/03/21/instead-of-closing-gitmo-to-receive-m...
Fake terror, fake justice.