General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums10 Years
In pictures: Ten years of Guantanamo Bay
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-16503410
Ten years of 'Gitmo' -- and more to come
http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/11/world/analysis-gitmo-ten-years/?hpt=us_t2
The lingering stain of Guantanamo
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/the-lingering-stain-of-guantanamo-20120110-1ptfy.html
'Tortured' Guantanamo Bay prisoner seeks release of secret videos
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/10/10081516-tortured-guantanamo-bay-prisoner-seeks-release-of-secret-videos
Faces of Guantanamo: Detainees Who Were Unjustly Imprisoned
http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2012/01/11/faces-of-guantanamo-detainees-who-were-unjustly-imprisoned/#ixzz1j9SGjKuz
Guantanamo: 10th anniversary of a symbol of shame
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-gitmo-20120110,0,1845343.story
Happy 10th Birthday, Guantanamo Bay
http://battleland.blogs.time.com/2012/01/11/happy-10th-birthday-guantanamo-bay/
Ten years later, Guantanamo still harms us all
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/10/ED2F1MNA60.DTL
Guantánamo Bay 10-year anniversary: timeline
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/9006682/Guantanamo-Bay-10-year-anniversary-timeline.html
10 years. 120 months. 3,652 days. 87,658 hours.
madokie
(51,076 posts)In time it will be shown that where America went wrong was the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq. This is a stain that will never ever be cleaned up. In some ways we all own this too, for it was us who allowed the bushco criminals to continue on their scorched earth policies
Bandit
(21,475 posts)They put the Republicans in Power with a decision that was unprecedented.. The Entire purpose of the Supreme Court is to establish legal precedent. Never in their entire history have they ever ruled upon any matter that did not establish legal precedent until Bush* v Gore.....
Solly Mack
(90,764 posts)Hard to clean up the blood stains of torture/war crimes, I agree.
eShirl
(18,490 posts)I can't express the horror I feel.
BlueIris
(29,135 posts)whether any of the prisoners there really did anything to deserve to be there. How close am I to winding up there?
Solly Mack
(90,764 posts)Not because they did anything - but because someone wanted the money....and then they were held for years, for no reason.
Matariki
(18,775 posts)and there are many who committed no crime or had connections to Al Qaeda but are there due to the bounty offered for turning people in.
This is truly a terrible shame for this country.
Solly Mack
(90,764 posts)I honestly don't think that was BlueIris's meaning.
Matariki
(18,775 posts)I certainly didn't mean that as criticism of BlueIris's post. The topic makes me very upset.
Solly Mack
(90,764 posts)Hell Hath No Fury
(16,327 posts)So many have forgot, so many more now make excuses.
Like the WW2 internment, this will be our Nations' shame.
Solly Mack
(90,764 posts)How does one just opt to pretend people weren't tortured? abused?
Capitalocracy
(4,307 posts)and apparently, some people are really, really good at that, to the point where they don't even care that this sort of thing happens.
Too many people seem to be quite happy about it.
Solly Mack
(90,764 posts)eShirl
(18,490 posts)this is how a loved one of mine looked when they were in the hospital for weeks and almost died
so skinny & atrophied muscles
Solly Mack
(90,764 posts)gratuitous
(82,849 posts)And we know that's true because of America's exceptionally exceptional power to act justly in all places, in all cases. Why do you hate America? Still some room there, you know.
This is and continues to be fucked up beyond all measure and reason.
Solly Mack
(90,764 posts)jwirr
(39,215 posts)camps in Germany even though I have always been a US citizen of German descent. In the back of my mind has always been the question what would I have done if I had been born in Germany?
Solly Mack
(90,764 posts)done but, me being me, I still feel I should have done something more.
I've felt helpless - unable to stop it or to promote prosecutions of the guilty. (as both Cheney, Bush, as well as the CIA have all admitted to torture, they're guilty)
jwirr
(39,215 posts)you wonder.
spanone
(135,830 posts)Solly Mack
(90,764 posts)The actions of our government do reflect on us as a nation....as a people.
Uncle Joe
(58,355 posts)Thanks for the thread, Solly Mack.
Solly Mack
(90,764 posts)I wish we were posting threads about the prosecutions of America's war criminals. Maybe even marking the 1 year 'anniversary' thereof...
Uncle Joe
(58,355 posts)and have been absolved of their obvious crimes.
This is a long and good read but the incongruity of your OP and our posts brings to mind this essay by Albert Einstein re:socialism during the McCarthy Witch Hunt Era, on the Good Reads Forum.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10166549
"But historic tradition is, so to speak, of yesterday; nowhere have we really overcome what Thorstein Veblen called the predatory phase of human development. The observable economic facts belong to that phase and even such laws as we can derive from them are not applicable to other phases. Since the real purpose of socialism is precisely to overcome and advance beyond the predatory phase of human development, economic science in its present state can throw little light on the socialist society of the future."
Peace to you Solly Mack.
Solly Mack
(90,764 posts)and to you!
wildbilln864
(13,382 posts)Solly Mack
(90,764 posts)barbtries
(28,789 posts)and it gets more wrong by the day.
Solly Mack
(90,764 posts)rug
(82,333 posts)Solly Mack
(90,764 posts)Bonobo
(29,257 posts)Anyone who thinks this is not Fascism, is not worth speaking to.
Solly Mack
(90,764 posts)yardwork
(61,599 posts)The actions of our government do reflect on us as a nation....as a people. We can pretend it doesn't...but we're just lying to ourselves.
I know it's not fair or just or right to blame all the citizens for the actions of government...but it isn't fair or right or just to torture people either. It's wrong to not prosecute those who do engage in torture.
We've got a lot of chickens just biding their time before they come home to roost.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Look what is happening just this year, at a record clip, under a Democratic President:
SOPA, internet ID's, indefinite detention, targeted assassinations of American citizens, coordinated brutal assaults on peaceful protesters, labeling of protesters as "terrorists," surveillance of American citizens without warrants, defense of corrupt banks, systematic shredding of support systems for the poor, etc., etc., etc.
This is not a matter of Democrat versus Republican. This is a matter of a corporate ruling class moving swiftly to solidify their power over an awakening public, and it is happening on a bipartisan basis.
Occupy NOW, because doing so will be impossible later, given the trajectory they are taking.
What caused an unholy trinity of Republicans, Democrats and the President to trash the Constitution?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002155232#post15
xiamiam
(4,906 posts)look the other way
Solly Mack
(90,764 posts)Thank you.
cyberpj
(10,794 posts)what or who changed President Obama's desire to end it.
===========================================
Obama promise to close Guantánamo prison unfulfilled
By Jeremy Herb - 01/11/12 08:32 PM ET
The 10th anniversary of the Guantánamo Bay prison was marked with protests Wednesday, as closing the controversial detention facility remains a promise unfulfilled for President Obama.
Obama campaigned on closing the facility in Cuba and, in one of his first actions as president, issued an executive order calling for it to be dismantled within one year. But as he enters the final year of his first term, human-rights groups are dismayed that the end of Guantánamo is nowhere in sight.
While he remains committed to closing Guantánamo, the president has been hampered from making progress due to opposition from both parties, and he signed a law last month that placed heavy restrictions on transferring any detainees out of the facility.
I know President Obama reiterated his pledge to close Guantánamo, but its not clear why we should believe him, said Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights. There is more he could have done to persuade Congress and fellow Americans that this is the right thing to do.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/203727-obama-promise-to-close-prison-at-guantanamo-still-unfulfilled