Torture, Gitmo, and the Treatment of Detainees: President Obama's Three Executive Orders for Thursday

It's a true pity that the great President Bush should have been replaced by somebody elected by.....mistake.

Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary. Take Obama for example: he knows nothing but he thinks he knows everything. Isn't that amazing?

Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary: Obama for example!

It's a pity that the great President Bush should habe been replaced by somebody elected by.....mistake.

Face it, six weeks' worth of the luxuries afforded the guests
at Guantanamo Detention Center would turn an Amish school girl
into an American hating terrorist. What those detainees'
dispositions were before they went to Guantanamo is pretty much
a moot point at this juncture. It's fairly certain they hate
America, today, and most of the detainees would become terrorists,
if given the opportunity, now, and who could blame them? Without
knowing what to do with the detainees, Barack Obama has shut down
Guantanamo with the thoughtless knee jerk reaction worthy of
George Bush, Jr.

Dr. Phil and an army of psychiatrists couldn't straighten those
people out, now. What's Obama going to do, put the detainees in
prison to convert the general population and teach them how to
build and deploy their own home grown IEDs? This is exactly the
kind of half baked idea that those of us who opposed Obama feared;
and which got, and kept, Bush in deep du du. Give the Obamacrats
enough rope and they will hang themselves. The probem is, they're
going to hang the rest of us, too.

Why does he want to put us in danger, now I feel all my training in survival will come to use. At least when Bush was in office I felt safe to live here, now im scared of what is to come, when he lets them all go. They hate us, I guess, he family to them, why did you dumb democ, vote for him. He's never been to war for this country, and I think that should be a number one factor to become a president of the US

This report fails to inform the viewer of any Facts from the side of why to keep these people. War is dirty work. The Real choice is do we use all methods to protect ourselves or allow operatives for others the chance to kill us.

This Obama is a big ignorant! In his speech he said that America defeated fascism and communism without missiles and tanks but only with strong alliances and during faiths. What a rubbish! Was the D-day in Normandy carried out without tanks? I don't think so. Obama's ignorance is abysmal and that can have appaling consequences. He has the greatest opportunity for public service. He can resign today!

So much confusion of the facts in some of the comments.
Obama is not turning these detainees loose. The evidence against them will be examined, they will be transferred to other prisons while awaiting trial.
Please keep in mind our Defense Department states that 86% of the detainees were not apprehended by our armed forces but by Pakistanis and others who were offered large bounties for 'terrorists'. This obviously isn't the way to get accurate arrests with credible evidence. From other news stories we have heard many innocents were rounded up for the cash.
The U.S. justice system is bound by the words 'innocent until proven guilty'. We should not feel something is being done against terrorism by imprisoning people without evidence, without giving them trials as has been done at Gitmo.
It is no different if a mass murderer is on the loose. Will it make us feel safer to arrest anyone and claim he is the guilty party or do we want the actual criminal arrested?

I truly fear for the safety and well being of our service men and women abroad; not to the innocent citizens here. Gitmo was the perfect place to house enemy combatants that have no regard for human life.

I am not ignorant I understand that less than scrupulous tactics were used to get information...that still does not compare to cutting a man's head off on TV. We can light, carry and support the tourch of freedom and liberty, but we still need to combat an evil that refuses to play by our rules.

We can say over and over again that we need to take the high road, but do you really think this will prevail against this enemy. We did not provoke 911, all we had to do was exist.

“Switzerland is part of the fight against terrorism. There is no neutrality against this threat.”
- Samuel Schmid

After seeing Obama's first acts, I have decided that I don't know much about politics either.

Torture? Lying has never been that easy!!

Great expectations? Probably the Titanic very alike!! With this commander in chief is assured.....

That this green-horn can solve the economy crisis is really a dream that would turn very soon into a nightmare and the silly people who did shed tears at the inauguration to office of this political 'Champion' would better to undergo a group therapy or a brain surgery.

Is the Guantanamo's closing a priority? In Guantanamo there are terrorists no third-rate criminals. If these are the first performances of the new President, you can be prepared for everything. Be ready for bigger escalations of foolishnesses.

Put the Gitmo detainees on Alcatraz. That way Nancy Pelosi can keep an eye on them.

The San Francisco liberal establishment seems so interested in making them comfortable, let them see first hand how much their beloved terrorists appreciate their support.

When it is all said and done, it comes down to one thing: Obama is an IDIOT.

"Terrorism fails if a democratic system protects it's democratic way of living."

Terrorism is a tactic. The goal is whatever group that employs it is trying to achieve. The IRA goal was far different then the goal of AQ. So I don't see the connection.

"Bush succumbed immediately to terrorist values.He instituted indefinate imprisonment without trial, cancelled Habeus Corpus, and SANCTIONED torture for the first time in America. (Not the first instance of torture but the first that gave torturers impunity)"

Wow, where to start with this one. Again terrorist "values" change with whatever group is employing the tactic. I assume you mean Islamic based groups. I'm not sure where any of the things you list are noted in the AQ manual. Maybe it is, I read it 3 years ago and didn't commit it to memory. Sanctioned torture? Is cutting off someones hand torture? Thats what happens to you if you steal in some countries (Muslim). Saddam threw people off the top of buildings, mangled with broken bones to die a slow death in a prison. Thats obvious torture. I see no where anyhing nearly close to that is "sanctioned" anywhere. You are most certainly a sheltered person, probably haven't been to parts of the world that are terribly brutal. Your perspective of torture is far different than the combatants in that prison. Those men grew up in a brutal world. So this just depends on who defines it. Obviously your a Bush hater, so its torture in your book. Thats your opinion. Trust that its not shared by everyone, including some Americans.

"Guantanamo processed people who may or may not have been terrorists. Of those processed through any kind of tribunal, few or none (I've lost count) have been found guilty of terrorism, rather they were DEEMED to be guilty of immigration violations, not terrorism."

Obviously you have no information on how, where, and what circumstances these men were taken into custody, yet feel necessary to draw broad conclusions and talk so pationatly about them.

"If captured on the battleground they would be properly "POWs" if we were truly legitimately at WAR. However, since you cannot be "at war" with a verb rather than a country, their status is confusing. They are actually prisoners of our invasion. As such they should not be treated at a lower standard than POWs."

You need to go and educate yourself on what is qualified as a POW. These men do not meet that criteria. They are characterized as unlawful combatants. Tailiban for example, if captured in uniform (Black turbin with black overcoat), they are a POW because they were part of a nation group. Most of them are held in Afghanistan in far harsher conditions than GITMO.

"The crucial thing is whether we have now dis avowed torture and unlawful inprisonment without trial."

Again, see who defines what tactic is torture, especially those that fall in the disputed "grey" area. In a post further down, I explain this in more detail. They are not detained because they are being charged, they are detained because they deny the enemy a resource. In normal circumstances, when we acheived victory, we would release them. However, whats the terms of victory here? You can't use "peoples court" rules when talking about the detention of people who are trying to kill you.

"I need to know whether the the restriction of interrogation methods to the U.S Army manual and the UCMJ that existed before 2006 or the 2006 Manual which has been altered to allow "Enhanced Interrogation" I am searching for the text of the Executive order so I can determene which manual is now the standard"

I haven't seen anything like that. The manuals go through periodic changes for a number of things. Anything on interrogation techinics is something that usually goes through congressional committees. You might be shocked to know that many Democrats knew, and even blessed the technics you now call "torture". It went through a committee.

Here we go again. Making decisions without having any idea what the outcome will be. Obama has no idea what he is going to do with these people. Are some to be released? Where? When? How? Do we have to worry in our towns and cities? After all, some of these guys were responsible for 9-11, or do we think they have served enought time for all those murders? Wow!!!!! Same song, new verse.

I'd like to thank President Obama. After only 2 days in office he's managed to make me fearful to live in this country. The inmates in Gitmo were not being tortured. Who wants them in their backyard??? And he might as well offer his lounge chair to terrorists so that they feel comfortable when they are interrogated according to the Army field manual. For 7 plus years we were safe and now he's turned it around in 2 days. Good work!! What a President.