The newest fear-mongering campaign from the Right and the media

[CatWoman]

The latest fear-mongering campaign in the U.S. -- this one devoted to scaring Americans that they will be slaughtered if Guantanamo is closed and Terrorism suspects are brought into the U.S. for real trials -- is now in full swing. The New York Times today prints a front-page article claiming that a detainee released from Guantanamo last year has now become "the deputy leader of Al Qaeda’s Yemeni branch" (it's always amazing how bureaucratically structured Al Qaeda is alleged to be and how well we can discern the structure: "Deputy Leader, Yemen Branch"; do they have business cards and organizational charts?).

But the real fear-mongering is focused on all of the attacks that American communities will suffer if we imprison dangerous Terrorists inside the U.S. rather than in Guantanamo. House Minority Leader John Boehner wants you to be frightened: "I think the first thing we have to remember is that we're talking about terrorists here. Do we bring them into our borders?" GOP House Minority Whip Eric Cantor warned: "Actively moving terrorists inside our borders weakens our security. Most families neither want nor need hundreds of terrorists seeking to kill Americans in their communities." The always frightened Wall St. Journal Editorial Page shrieks that any place that houses Al Qaeda Terrorists will become a "target" for attack:



The military base is integrated into the community and, lacking Guantanamo's isolation and defense capacities, would instantly become a potential terror target. Expect similar protests from other states that are involuntarily entered in this sweepstakes.

National Review's Jim Geraghaty spent all day yesterday fantasizing about all the scary things that could happen if we have Al-Qaeda Terrorists in our communities (near nuclear facilities and airports!). Former Bush aide and chief speechwriter Marc Thiessen warned yesterday in The Washington Post that if there is a Terrorist attack on U.S. soil, Americans will blame Obama because he stopped torturing and closed Guantanamo, and Democrats will be "unelectable for a generation." Today, at National Review, Thiessen, citing yesterday's Executive Orders, declared Obama "to be the most dangerous man ever to occupy the Oval Office." And yesterday, of course, The Washington Post's Fred Hiatt echoed the standard claim that our regular federal courts were inadequate to try dangerous Terrorists.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/

[bluestateguy]

1. Not patriotic to criticize the Commander in Chief in a time of war

They are giving aid and comfort to the enemy with their rants against America/The President (the two are the same thing).

[Deja Q]

4. They won't get their own irony

Remember Trent Lott, in 1998, regarding Bill Clinton and the troops and who he chose to support.

[shraby]

2. Keee-rist!!! In World War II we had P.O.W. camps

in the United States with captured German soldiers in them.

Talk about trying to keep the mini-minds scared! Guess the GOP just can't resist trying to scare people. When are they going to learn that they've lost that battle.

[RJ Connors]

10. Well, when you've got nothing else, fear is your only option. n/t

[ClassWarrior]

3. I liked Tweety's response to some Rape-Publican snake the other night.

He said, "So you have no confidence in America's ability to handle dangerous prisoners?"

:rofl:

NGU.

[lunatica]

5. They're afraid to peek out from under their beds n/t

[pipi_k]

14. And what they don't even realize

is that the real terrorists are under the beds with them...

[marchellojones]

6. But dosen´t this

fearmongering from GOP open up them for debate. Are the prisoners really dangerous or not? If they are not,why where the people told that they are the worst of the worst!

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

7. Weak and whiny idealogues peddling fear door to door.

Sadly, there will be buyers, for we Americans have a lot of weak and whiny, thick and dull people amongst our numbers. The ones who write letters to the editor based upon what some Whining(once Squawking) Head said on the radio the day before. They write these things almost verbatim. They haven't a thought of their own because the analysis and reasoning that it would take to develop that thought is impeded by their laziness. Objective facts are ignored by them because they don't dovetail with their ideology.

Intellectually, they are Liver Flukes.

[metapunditedgy]

8. Yeah, but if true, some of this was no doubt CAUSED by Guantanamo.

Imagine some ordinary Joe just released from years of torture and humiliation by the USA. He'll be a bit angry at us. And he'll have knowledge valuable to terrorist organizations. (E.g., US interrogation tactics.) Plus, it will make all sorts of headlines if they promote one of these Guantanamo guys in their organization.

So the response from the Obama side is, "It looks to me like Guantanamo turned these guys INTO terrorists. I mean, you don't really have any solid evidence that they were terrorists when they came in, right?"

[marchellojones]

9. good point

[spanone]

11. the 'not in my back yard' bullshit...can President Obama overcome the media?

[creeksneakers2]

12. Again, they are afraid of the truth getting out

When those cases get reviewed we'll likely find out for sure what others have long alleged, that few of the prisoners had anything to do with any potential to attack the US. Its all been a staged operation to make it look like Bush was rounding up lots of terrorists. I'm not convinced there even are that many terrorists in the world. At least not ones who have the means and intent to carry out terrorist acts against the US.

[gollygee]

13. These folks, those among them who actually ARE terrorists anyway . . .

worked in groups, not alone. It seems like many individual prisoners already in various prisons are likely to individually be more dangerous than these folks, if there is an escape. These people would probably just try to get back home.

Anyway, it isn't even logical to treat them as more dangerous than people in other prisons.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

15. terrorists ARE in America, some foreign but most are right-wing racist organizations...

ALL Americans are deer (sp)??? to my heart. And those beer-drinking, good-ole boys that love hunting, don't scare me one bit! I'm buying a -rifle - a 44 magnum. Anyone want to go dear (sp) hunting? They're in season. Please feel free to edit any spelling errors in this post.