Courtesy of Politicususa:
I am going to be doing everything I can to close it. It is something that inspires jihadists and extremists around the world. It is contrary to our values, and it is wildly expensive. We’re spending millions for each individual there, and we have drawn down the population there significantly. There are a little less than 150 individuals left in this facility. We are continue to place those who have been cleared for release or transfer to host countries who are willing to take them. There’s going to be a certain irreducible number that are going to be really hard cases. We know they’ve done something wrong and they are still dangerous but it’s difficult to mount the evidence in a traditional Article three court so we’re going to have to wrestle with that, but we need to close that facility and I’m going to do everything I can to do that.
Politicususa goes on to affirm that the President is quite correct about the expense, and points out that while it only costs taxpayers about $78,000 a year per inmate in the most expensive supermax prison in the country it costs a whopping 2.8 million per prisoner in Gitmo.
You know if the President is able to find some way to close Guantnamo Bay it will make some of his other accomplishments pale in comparison, and DEFINITELY put a shine on his legacy.
Hmm, I wonder if renewing diplomatic ties with Cuba is part of his plan for putting pressure on the Republicans concerning Gitmo?
Is he really that many moves ahead of the GOP?
Yes, Obama is that many moves ahead of the GOP. They are unable to see beyond their short term goals of partisanship while Obama is looking out for the well being of the USA. He realizes there will always be some setbacks but he is always focused on a better future for all. And that is also why he doesn't give a shit about anything Palin says or does.
ReplyDeletePresident Obama has done so much good:
ReplyDeleteHow the stories of Native American youths made Obama cry in the Oval Office
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/12/03/how-a-trip-to-north-dakota-spurred-obama-to-act-on-native-american-issues/
And check out how Hawaii wants to honor him:
The Obama Library Might Look Like Something Out Of A Sci-Fi Dream
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/22/obama-library-designs_n_6368370.html
The Hate runs wild when there's a Dem and especially a Black Dem in office:
ReplyDeletehttp://aattp.org/splc-releases-map-of-neo-nazi-skinhead-confederate-patriot-groups-which-state-is-the-king-of-hate/
I said it from day 1 of his Presidency - this man is playing 3 dimensional chess while everyone else around him is playing checkers. Or tiddlywinks, in the case of some of the Tea Partiers.
ReplyDeleteThis man, who I don't worship blindly, who has taken up some of the mantle of the neo-cons, yet will leave a legacy that will be unmatched by any other former USPOTUS. He will be a very, very hard act to follow.
Have been to Gitmo several times ...
ReplyDeleteSome of the school teachers from the US moonlight as hookers. They ask for way too much money for a quickie.
Todd would feel "at home" there.
The way Obama handled Castro is a new blueprint for dealing with dictators
ReplyDelete...President Obama understands that isolation is a boon to dictatorship; and there are ways to engage autocratic leaders without encouraging repressive tactics, or looking the other way on gross human-rights violations.
http://qz.com/317020/the-way-obama-handled-castro-is-a-new-blueprint-for-dealing-with-dictators/
Call me naive, but just WHAT could be so expensive that we spend almost three million dollars/person/year there???
ReplyDeleteAlso, just where does he think those 150 left-over prisoners are going to go? Congress does not want them on US soil because then they would have a totally different set of rights ( no more torture amongst other things...)
Oh we'd never send them to America, and that's the current dilemma, no Government wants the really bad people from Gitmo to come live in their country, not even the countries that sent them on their missions of terror, "what, who, us? That guy didn't come from here...no thanks we don't want him, no way..."
DeleteIt will be challenging to place the most hardened criminals and they will most likely go to countries who have a history of Taliban occupation and terrorism and will become "part of the system" once again. However, we know who they are, where they are going and who they'll be working with, so I assume at the least the CIA will be tracking them for life. I can't imagine too many terrorist groups that want to harbor someone that the CIA is tracking.
Best bet for these released prisoners is to just go back to leading a private life and not engaging in terrorist activities because at the first sign of trouble the CIA will instruct the military to drone them into their "afterlife".
Your comment presumes that these people are all terrorists, when we know for a fact that at least 25 percent of them are innocent. How did they get there? They were turned in by their fellow men because handing them over to US authorities resulted in approximately $200 per captive – an amount equal to about two month's salary in Afghanistan. As for the 'guilty' ones, they still have not been accused or tried. Guilty of what? IF they are guilty (and many may be/probably are guilty), they are entitled to a trial with legally admissible evidence, and to confront and cross-examine their accusing witnesses. Torturing people who are BELIEVED to be guilty was evil even in the dark ages. It is conduct that is completely unacceptable for the 21st century's self-proclaimed super power. We, whose military budget exceeds all the military budgets in the world, combined, are afraid of a few dozen rag heads??? Realllllly? In that case, we are not a super power, we are a paranoid basket case that is afraid of our own shadow.
DeleteWould LOVE to see Obama publicly request that the Pentagon show him, in charts and together with supporting documents, every last budget entry that 'explains' the 2.8 million per prisoner annual expense. Then, would like to see public examination of the congressmen who appropriated this money (how much are they and their campaign-contributing cronies receiving in kick-backs?), and let these guys (and gals) just dangle in the breeze of public opinion for a while. "Lucy, you got some 'splaying' to do (shouted in a very recognizable Cuban accent, of course)!!!!!"
DeleteBy the way, has anyone in the 'media' reminded us lately that George W. Bush released about 500 Gitmo prisoners? Didn't think so.
Each Gitmo prisoner was 'purchased' from Afghan natives (or others) for a bounty ranging between $5,000 and $25,000, with some reaching bounties many tens of times higher still. The annual income in Afghanistan is a little over $1,100. Do the math.
He can't let Gitmo be open at the end of his presidency. He needs to have it shut down and shuttered before his second term is up so that history places Gitmo fully in the lap of the Bush Administration and not the Obama Administration. Prudent political move on his part as this next year and a half is for President Obama to create and cement his legacy as POTUS 44.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking of Cuba while reading the post and was wondering if there's some way he can use the power of the pen to get it done quicker. As long as it's there and being used, it's a symbol of what we're not supposed to be. This President gets that and knows the world is watching.
ReplyDelete