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February 3, 2012
Edmund Sanders : Israeli official says Iran is creating missile that could reach East Coast of US
Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
Jim Carney: Wrong number call may have saved her life
Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
February 1, 2012
Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
January 31, 2012
January 30, 2012
Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim: Misreading Teheran's limits -- deadly and economically devastating as they may be -- is a risk administration, Europe seem willing to take
Suzanne Bohan: Warning: Nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep, study finds
Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
January 27, 2012
Caroline B. Glick: Obama: Of course I intend to prevent a nuclear holocaust . . . in a few months
Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
Jeannine Stein: An inflated ego and thinking you're 'all that' doesn't just make others sick of you, it can make you ill
Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
January 26, 2012
Ed Koch: To the New York Times, calling for the murder of Jews by those capable of having their incitement taken seriously isn't news
Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
Richard Simon: House passes two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials
Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
January 24, 2012
Carol Clark: The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'
Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
Jordan Rau: In quest to grow, Catholic hospital system will announce this morning its break from church
Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
January 19, 2012
January 18, 2012
January 17, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
David G. Savage: They sued their principals after slandering them online --- now the cases are headed to the Supreme Court
David Francis: Where to Invest in 2012: With stocks expected to rebound, opportunity abounds for investors
January 13, 2012
Ben Lynfield: Israeli lawmakers move to annex Jewish Judea, one museum at a time
Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz: Thriving through touch: Gentle massage helps older people with low mobility improve in mind and body
January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
Warren Richey: Supreme Court says no to new rule on eyewitness testimony
John Fauber : Statins found to raise diabetes risk in postmenopausal women
Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
The Kosher Gourmet by Joseph Erdos: This mushroom and barley soup has an intense -- almost nutty -- flavor that mixes robust with Middle East. It has creaminess without cream
January 11, 2012
Shari Roan: Millions of atrial fibrillation sufferers at risk for devastating, but preventable, stroke
Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
January 6, 2012
January 5, 2012
Tom A. Peter: Taliban talks: In administration's push to negotiate with terrorists, was a key hurdle overlooked?
Pete Spotts: Time cloaking: How scientists opened a hidden gap in time
Karen Kaplan: Teens aren't too old to boost their IQ, study finds
January 4, 2012
Scott Baldauf: Islamist terror group giving Christians living in north Nigeria days to flee
Howard LaFranchi : An accelerating covert war with Iran: Could it spiral into military action?
January 3, 2012
Tom A. Peter: Release several Taliban leaders from Guantanamo Bay; give them headquarters as confidence-building measure?
Elaine Woo: Thomas T. Johnson, L.A. judge who ruled that Holocaust was a fact, dies at 88
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Jewish World Review
Shutting Down Guantanamo Makes No Common Sense
By
Heather Robinson
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Last week former Vice President Dick
Cheney defended the Bush administration's national security policies,
including holding "hard core" terror suspects at the detention facility
at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Cheney's warning that
granting rights to, and possibly releasing, hard-core terror suspects
would be a mistake comes on the heels of President Obama's announcement
that he plans to shut down Gitmo-a decision a majority of Americans disagree with, for good reason.
Americans are a people of common sense.
And shutting down Gitmo doesn't seem to make very much.
Although the President has already made
the decision, it remains to be seen what its ramifications will be.
High-minded arguments about civil liberties
aside, the evidence suggests that the U.S. has, if anything, erred on
the side of too much liberalism in its handling of the detainees at
Guantanamo. And that high-mindedness has cost innocent lives.
Of those inmates released during the
Bush years, at least 61 have
returned to the fight. Last
month it emerged that one of them, Said Al-Shihri, has become al Qaeda's number
two man in Yemen, and is
thought to have been involved in the September, 2008 bombing of the
U.S. embassy there. That bombing killed ten innocent people, including
guards and civilians waiting outside the embassy. Al Shihri is thought
to have participated in this violence after the U.S. released him from
Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia, where he attended a Saudi "rehabilitation
program" for jihadists.
Rehab? For terrorists? Maybe it's time
we realized these are hard core enemy combatants, not Hollywood starlets
with a taste for Valium.
Gitmo's most hysterical detractors
paint a picture of the facility as the nexus of Dick Cheney's evil
Death Star, a place where torture is taking place and people disappear,
never to be heard from again. That description could aptly describe
facilities in Iraq during the rule of Saddam Hussein, but not Guantanamo.
With all the emotion surrounding Gitmo,
few people actually pay attention to the facts
about what actually goes on there.
Inmates have clean rooms, excellent medical care, access to books and
writing materials, and decent meals that provide 4,000 calories a day.
They receive visits from the International Committee of the Red Cross,
as well as consultations with their attorneys.
Each detainee gets to appear yearly before an administrative review
board comprised of three
military officers. With the aid of their attorneys, detainees can present
evidence to argue for their release or relocation. As of last month,
a cumulative total of 520 detainees had been relocated or released as
a result of this process--far more than the 250 currently being held,
whom the Department of Homeland Security describes as "dangerous men"
and "enemy combatants [who] represent a threat to the U.S. or our
allies."
The reality is, shutting down Gitmo will
usher in a raft of legal complications that will likely result in the
release of some hard core detainees, according to Brooke Goldstein,
an attorney and director of the Legal Project for Daniel Pipes' Middle
East Forum, a Philadelphia-based think tank dedicated to promoting U.S.
interests in the mideast.
"If Guantanamo prisoners are moved
to a domestic prison, they will be subject to U.S. law and will be afforded
the same rights and constitutional protections of an American citizen,"
Goldstein said. "Based on the succession of past cases, it is certain
that after they are tried in the U.S., some of these prisoners will
be released. If they are released ... the chances of their rejoining
the violent jihadi movement are high."
Goldstein adds that civil libertarians'
objections to detainees being held without trial fails to take into
account that jihadists have declared a war without end against the U.S.
"According to the Geneva Conventions,
you can hold enemy combatants for the duration of hostilities until
peace has been declared," she says. "It gets muddied because these
guys have declared an indefinite war against the United States and Western
civilization."
Further practical problems that might
develop if detainees were moved to U.S. prisons include radicalization
of prisoners in U.S. facilities.
"What effect will these prisoners have
on other prisoners?" says Goldstein. "We already have a problem
of radicalization in our prisons towards a militant version of Islam-do
we want to add to that?"
Not to mention that relocating detainees
to U.S. cities poses potential problems for communities located within
the vicinity of a prison.
"Take into consideration the people
who live in these areas," says Goldstein. "If you are moving people
into domestic areas, what kind of threat will you place people who live
in the area in?"
With attorneys to advocate for them,
and yearly review of their cases, as well as the chance to pray six times
a day, the detainees at Guantanamo
have more rights and privileges than did German or Japanese prisoners
of war during World War II. But unlike Japanese and German soldiers,
who were conscripted into armies and had no choice but to fight unless
they were willing to be shot for treason, jihadists voluntarily wage
war on the U.S. and our allies.
Is it really appropriate or useful for
them to believe that, should they be caught planning attacks, high-minded
Americans will rush to agitate for their rights, and possibly their
release?
It's just not good common sense.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Heather Robinson is a New York-based journalist. Comment by clicking here.
© 2009, Heather Robinson
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