'Half' of Al Qaeda

Rahm Emanuel: Half Of Al Qaeda 'Eliminated' -- ABC News

One of the missed parts that was casually dropped by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said on 'This Week' was "About “a half of al Qaeda has been eliminated in this last 18 months”

Discussing the war in Afghanistan – which recently became America’s longest – with host Jake Tapper, Emanuel was bullish on the progress that has been made in war-torn country and insisted that President Obama’s July 2011 deadline for the beginning of a drawdown of troops was “not moving.”

Read more ....

Yes, but for every Al Qaeda #2 and random soldier killed .... there are scores who are willing to take their place. The White House's confidence that the enemy is losing is a bit premature .... in fact .... Al Qaeda has just publicized their peace terms with the U.S. as well as threatening new attacks.

Hmmmm .... they don't sound vanquished to me, Rahm.

Thanks War News Update

Breaking Even

House Panel Rejects A Plan To Shift Detainees To Illinois (NY Times)

WASHINGTON — The House Armed Services Committee has dealt a blow to President Obama’s hopes to shutter the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, by unanimously approving legislation that would prohibit creating a detention center inside the United States.

The administration had asked Congress to approve about $350 million to buy and renovate a nearly empty prison in Thomson, Ill. The White House plan was to empty Guantánamo and transfer its detainees to Illinois — including 48 who would be held without trial as wartime prisoners. Read more

When Mr. Obama announced a year ago that that his first executive order was to close Guantanamo prison, I mentioned that I was very skeptical that such an order will be carried out. A year and a half later, with little fanfare, President Obama's fellow Democrats in Congress have killed this executive order.

But it doesn't matter since, due to a major court ruling -

Court Rules that No Habeas Rights For Prisoners In Afghanistan (LA TIMES)

Obama wins what Bush tried so hard to get... the right to hold suspects without judicial oversight at the Bagram air base.

The Obama administration has won the legal right to hold its terrorism suspects indefinitely and without oversight by judges — not at Guantanamo or in Illinois, mind you, but rather at the Bagram air base in Afghanistan.

In a 3-0 decision, the U.S. appeals court in Washington ruled for the administration Friday and said the Constitution and its right to habeas corpus does not extend to foreign prisoners held by the U.S. military in Afghanistan because it is a war zone. The judges dismissed claims from three prisoners who were taken to Bagram from Pakistan and Thailand and have been held for as long as seven years. Read more

Another milestone looming is the complete and total U.S. drawdown from Iraq is coming in August. Wonder if we'll hit that marker, or if they'll somehow find a reason to stick around?

I asked for the Olympics, I got a prison. How's that for being born under a bad sign?

U.S. to Pick Illinois Prison to House Some Guantánamo Detainees

The Obama administration about to announce that it has selected a prison in northwestern Illinois to house terrorism suspects now being held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. It's a big step toward shutting down the military detention facility in Cuba.

Now when we say 'selected' does that mean there really were other bids, or did they just collect the papers and give it to Illinois anyway? How hard was the bidding process there?

An administration official said President Obama had directed the federal government to proceed with acquiring the Thomson Correctional Center, a maximum-security prison in a rural village about 150 miles west of Chicago. Much to the delight of the impoverished state that Mr. Obama left behind.

My guess, on the stage that conducts Illinois political theater, this is a breadcrumb thrown to the cronies in Springfield that hadn't gotten any love from Mr. Obama.

I'd really support this plan if former Governors George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich (when they convict him) get to stay there too.

Bush Lite

Campaign Obama: I'll stop torture, abide by the Geneva Conventions and roll back NSA wiretapping programs.

President Obama: Torture will continue, we will hold detainees even after they're found Innocent, and you bet we're going to keep spying on Americans.

I didn't even mention that he is now encouraging failed banks and companies receiving government bailouts to hand out large bonuses to their executives, staffed his entire Treasury Department with Goldman Sachs alumni, has refused to prosecute Americans who committed torture, and held private meetings with coal executives and continued to push for mythical ‘clean coal’.

And he has committed to a Surge in Afghanistan that he was against in Iraq.

He's Bush-Lite.

Discuss.

Loophole Win-Win at Gitmo

U.S. Could Let Detainees Plead Guilty Without Trials

The Obama administration is considering a change in the law for the military commissions at the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, that would clear the way for detainees facing the death penalty to plead guilty without a full trial.

The provision could permit military prosecutors to avoid airing the details of brutal interrogation techniques. It could also allow the five detainees who have been charged
with the Sept. 11 attacks to achieve their stated goal of pleading guilty to gain their martyrdom.

Hey, now that's a win-win for everyone! We get five fewer terrorists and don't have to air dirty laundry - they get seventy two virgins for all eternity. Except, guys, by my math those virgins only last about two and a half months at best... wouldn't you rather make the US look bad first with a showy trial exposing the Bush Adminis- 72 virgins it is. This way to the gallows, boys...

Read More: Linko

The Ultimate NIMBY

Again, housing bad guys has turned into the ultimate NIMBY - that is Not In My Back Yard - for you non-Carlin fans out there.

As some of you know, I have zero problem with keeping the Gitmo facility open. No one else wants them, after Bush asked, pleaded and begged the allies to take them.

Not too surprising, no one wants these nice terrorist folks to come to US soil either.

But wasn't this supposed to be about how the Bush administration treated the prisoners there?

What about detaining a bad guy indefinitely without any legal recourse - the legal and physical Phantom Zone or Catholic Limbo? I thought that the original argument had been about flimsy or poor evidence against against the prisoner picked up off the battlefield? The problem starts with a national from another country, say, Saudi Arabia, illegally in Iraq or Afghanistan, aiming weapons at US Soldiers and civilians of the host country? Instead of shooting said illegal alien aggressor war monger, we decided that we should take them out... to sunny Cuba.

There's a discussion of ambiguous and gray-possibly-illegal torture methods used on three bad guys, but that discussion has become a smokescreen for both sides of the political-do-nothings in Congress. What did you know, and when did you know it means NOTHING. As much as I tire of Lady Pelosi - it's a boring argument. She's incompetent. We already know that. Can we move on? She should have just said I didn't understand - not accuse the CIA of misleading or lying to her and Congress. We would have believed that she was an idiot. That's called transparency.

Look, Gitmo has morphed into a symbol, more than anything else. A symbol to the world of America's undiagnosed bipolar disorder. On one hand, America is a bastion of democracy and liberty, free markets and possibility of greatness for everyone who wishes to participate. On the other, we'll do anything -anything- to keep our place as the world's ultimate super power. We'll keep all threats against our crazy lifestyle that we'll assassinate and destabilize your country, even invade it, and if you really piss us off, we'll waterboard you... hell if you attack us, we'll nuke you, twice.

And what would happen if you DID bring these nice terrorists to the US prison system? Haven't you ever seen a documentary about how bad American prisons are? Haven't you seen Frontline: The Released? Up The Ridge? What about all those shows on MSNBC Sunday night? HBO's OZ? At least at Gitmo the prisoners have nice Caribbean weather and access to other prisoners, prayer rugs, and - most importantly - media attention.

Now compare the conditions at Gitmo with a SuperMax. In a SuperMax, the bad guys are held uncommunicado in isolation cells, no visitors, no contact with the outside world, and likely worse food. [Maybe even a processed pork product?! Oh no!] Hell, compare conditions at Gitmo with just a regular US prison? Rapes, racism, gang warfare, overcrowding, limited funding, you know, OZ!

I can imagine that Gitmo, while being limbo, has got to be better than a regular US prison? Got an opinion on it? Go on...

Bush Light

Obama says the US "lost its way" fighting terror, reassuring his antsy progressive base who are beginning to suspect that on terror, he may be Bush Light. (link)

Wait, so all that posturing and anti-Bush self-righteous rhetoric slandering Bush the last eight years was nothing more than politics? No!

The reality of this issue, is that Obama said they were going to come here. Supermax prisons? Oh, well he didn't say that. He said they're getting "released" here. And everyone went batnuts over the idea. And the Democrats lost a battle.

And now Obama is so awesome that he can even make Karl Rove happy: "Barack Obama inherited a set of national-security policies that he rejected during the campaign but now embraces as president. This is a stunning and welcome about-face." (link)

Now that the revolting Senate Democrats are telling him he can't have money to shut down Gitmo, MAYBE, that wasn't such a good idea - and MAYBE - there was a pretty good reason why the bad guys were put there in the first place? And MAYBE after hearing that 1-7 of the bad guys (link to that report) who were released end up going straight back into the fight - potentially killing innocents or American soldiers?

No word what the other six guys end up doing. Dentistry perhaps?

What amazes me is that ole' Mr. Personality, Dick Cheney is not only back in the news, he's able to shape and win the debate... oh, there's probably a cartoon for that - here you go....


Come on Obama voters, is this the Hope and Change you voted for? Is this what you were expecting?

Me, I thought the second Obama and the Congressional Democrats won, they'd put their war helmets on, put John Kerry in an important committee and declare that the war had been fought incorrectly, and now it's their turn to do it right - then they'd pull a couple FDR references and fight the war "correctly."

Hey, they own it now. It's all theirs. Gitmo, Afghanistan [not as much Iraq, for some reason] and Iran. It's theirs. They wanted the job, and they got it. But how come they are still using Bush's playbook, and listening to the fired coach? That's the better question.

First Act: Freeze Cuba

President Obama ordered the nation to freeze Cuba.

No doubt he'll just fire up ole' Dick Cheney's Weather Dominator - last used to destroy the levies in New Orleans, to kill African Americans. The Weather Dominator uses three unique parts that -

What's that? President Obama has ordered the U.S. government to suspend prosecutions of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay for 120 days?

Obama had vowed to close the naval prison at the U.S. base. While Obama's order does not go that far, it will stop the prosecutions of 21 detainees currently facing war crimes charges.

Oh?

And it's time to put away childish things. Yeah, good luck with that one.