CHENEY: "there's never yet been a congressman come forward & volunteer to take 250 al Qaeda members"

[kpete]

Cheney Assails Obama Decision to Close Gitmo; Expresses Concern That Democrats About to Take Over Don't Realize World Has Changed

January 13, 2009 11:23 AM

In a radio interview with Bill Bennett this morning, Vice President Dick Cheney said that President-elect Barack Obama's pending executive order to shut down the Detention Center at Guantanamo Bay is a "bad decision."

"I used to have the impression this is a classic case where they campaigned so hard against Guantanamo that now they don't have any choice but to try to close it," the vice president said of the Obama team. "But that's too bad; they've got a lot of tough questions to answer first."

...............

Mr. Cheney noted that "there's never yet been a congressman come forward and volunteer to take 250 al Qaeda members in his district ... So then the question is, where are you going to put them? And you've got to sort that all out before you close Guantanamo."

At a different point in the interview, Mr. Cheney said there "are a lot of people who did good work and were honorable civil servants and public servants during the Clinton administration coming back in. One of the things I worry about, though, is they'll assume they can pick up right where they left off. And the fact is the world has changed in major ways since January of '01 when we took over. And that break in service of some eight years I think they will find has been a period of time when the threat to the nation has changed in fairly dramatic ways."

-- jpt
more at:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/01/cheney-assails.html

[rockymountaindem]

1. You know, Cheney, the problem is not *where* we keep them

In fact, Guantanamo is probably the perfect place to imprison these suspects. It is remote from the US, and any potential jailbreak party would have a hard time infiltrating the area (since it is a military base) and would have a harder time blending into the wider population than in the United States.

The problem, Mr. Cheney, is the utter legal limbo for which Guantanamo has become a symbol. If only you were somehow able to affect any real judicial process for the men imprisoned there, simply locating the prison in Cuba would not present the problem that it currently does. However, the combination of keeping them in Cuba and not handling their legal cases in any serious way suggests that you really don't care how long we imprison them, or what there eventual fate is. In a democracy, that is the problem.

[merh]

7. your response nails it

But it is just like a republican to think "we give them 3 meals a day and a clean room" what more could they want.

Gitmo would have been perfect if they had afforded them the very basic due process rights they were entitled to.

What a waste these people are, they have never understood the basis principles that make our nation great - their "might makes right" mindset ignores the might that comes from doing the right thing at all times.

[lutefisk]

2. I propose they all be moved to St. Michaels, Maryland. I hear it's lovely, there.

Now be a good neighbor, Dick.

[merh]

6. I'm thinking there is this lovely, well fortified ranch in Wyoming

that was fortified at the cost of the taxpayers, that would serve as a very secure place to put there folks.

[madmom]

3. Right, like him and his cronies didn't try to pick up where they left off!

[tanyev]

4. Why don't you volunteer Wyoming, Dick?

[Occam Bandage]

5. He brings up a valid point: the repatriation of detainees is a tricky process.

Some detainees would be welcomed back to their home nations--but only for a quick trial and a brutal punishment. Other detainees would be refused admittance by every other nation on Earth. And Congress is certainly not going to be happy about voting to give Gitmo detainees permanent resident status.

However, Dick, the mere fact that a moral decision will require an intensive, months-long diplomacy process does not mean that it is a better idea to just violate human rights willy-nilly.

Dumbass.

[mdmc]

8. The world is the same... people fought us before 9-11-01

The world has changed because our reaction to 9-11-01 has made us less safe, more at risk, and unpopular to boot.

[Winterblues]

9. when the threat to the nation has changed in fairly dramatic ways."

Sounds like this is an open admission that the USA is far less safe than during Clinton's time. The idea is to reduce the threat not increase it as Cheney basically admitted they have done by the very tactics he is bragging about..

[DemoTex]

10. Bill Bennett: GOP's supreme arbiter of all matters ethical or moral ..

Did Bill Bennett, moral and ethical arbiter of the GOP, leave his bench long enough to do a radio program? Or did Cheney join Bennett on his bench? Tokay or Thunderbird?

[sinkingfeeling]

11. Well old Dick is right about one thing...

"And that break in service of some eight years I think they will find has been a period of time when the threat to the nation has changed in fairly dramatic ways."

Yes, the threat to the nation came from within. The destruction of our Constitution and the 'unitary executive' that you guys implemented constituted a grave threat to our democracy.

[Contrary1]

12. Wow. He and Junior are the perfect pair...

No conscience, no regrets. And both are more than willing to gloat about what they got away with in their last days in office.

If there's a hell, these two have secured their reservations.

[gratuitous]

13. I wondered where this talking point came from

There was a letter to the editor in our daily fishwrap this past week, raising this exact same point: None of you libruls wants to take in these dangerous terrorists! They have to remain imprisoned.

In other words, our mistake is so colossal that we dare not stop making it. We are locked forever in the embrace of the prisoners at Guantanamo because to let them go would be to invite their revenge. They are, right this second, engaged in “asymmetrical” warfare, where we are at a disadvantage because these prisoners, by their mere existence, force us to react instead of act.

The democratic, humanitarian, ethical and moral response (four adjectives that explain why it has escaped the “reasoning” of Cheney and his ilk) is that we broke them, we bought them. It is up to the U.S. taxpayer to release these prisoners, set them up for life, and attempt to undo the harm we have done. In the long run, it will be cheaper and safer to pursue this course than to stay on the present course.

[midnight]

14. Bravo response......

[Myrina]

15. ... the thought of leaving them where they were in the first place ...

... and keeping our paws off their land/culture/religion so they have no reason to hate us in the first place has crossed my mind a time or two ...