The real action on Guantanamo

[changemonger]

President Obama's decision to close Guantanamo and ban the use of torture on his first day in office is the clear indication that he, just like everyone of us, acknowledges that the Bush administration did in fact break US and international law and should therefore be prosecuted.
Closing Guantanamo, or ordering to close it within a year(!), is the easiest decision and I'm pretty sure even the most incompetent lawyer will get at least 90% of Gitmo detainees out in a real justice court, because there is no f*cking evidence against them. If it's meant as a "gift" to the base to reassure them before taking the controversial decisions like some commentators assume, I'm afraid it won't be enough. If they're gonna close Guantanamo , they have no option but to prosecute those who opened the center in the first place and ordered the torture there. That would be the real action concerning Guantanamo!

[Occam Bandage]

1. Er, no, not really. Guantanamo needed to be closed regardless of Bush's violations of US law,

simply because of its brutal symbolic nature. It is entirely possible to believe that Guantanamo needed to close, while not believing that George W. Bush engaged in any criminal actions regarding Guantanamo. I mean, sure, I believe it needed to close and that Bush is guilty as sin, but it's wrong to say that closing Gitmo is necessarily a declaration of Bush's guilt.

Oh, and both closing Gitmo and investigating Bush have the support of 50% of Americans, versus low-to-mid-40s opposing. That doesn't mean Obama should do neither--it only means that Obama should explain why either is necessary upon doing either--but invoking "every one of us" is a bit off.

[changemonger]

2. I mean "we" here at DU

I disagree, it's beyond the symbolic nature. Closing Guantanamo and doing it on Day one, coupled with a decision to ban torture and a commitment to the Geneva convention, is a more than clear acknowledgement that what went on at Gitmo was clearly against the law.

[wmbrew0206]

3. You are partly right

I believe there are around 275 prisoners at Gitmo. 60 of them are not going to be charged with anything, but no country will take them, so they are stay there until someone figures out what to do with them. These guys are going to have to be released somewhere and soon.

As far as torture at Gitmo, you are going to have to be more specific as what you define as torture.

If you are defining torture as waterboarding, then that did not take place at Gitmo. The CIA admitted to waterboarding three AQ members and I believe all of them took place at "black sites" in foreign countries, Eastern European if I remember correctly.