Another thread has already dealt with the stupidity of the GOP talking point about Obama "releasing terrorists on American soil," but Rep. Smith's claim that Obama might as well "close all other jails and prisons, too" is staggeringly idiotic. You can get other shit on him from SourceWatch.President Obama and former Vice President Dick Cheney offered competing views on how to keep America safe in back-to-back speeches Thursday.
Obama said his administration is trying to clean up "a mess" left behind by the Bush administration. He defended his plan to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba, his ban on torture, the release of Bush-era interrogation memos and his objection to the release of prisoner photos.
Cheney stood up for the Bush administration's security record, arguing that Obama has weakened the country's ability to combat al Qaeda and other extremists. He defended the use of enhanced interrogation techniques as a success that changed thousands of lives. He called the release of the Bush-era memos a reckless distraction and belittled Obama's decision to close Guantanamo "with little deliberation and no plan."
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's spokesman wrote off Cheney's address as something more beneficial to Democrats than Republicans.
"He is such a wildly unpopular figure trying to defend such discredited policies that Democrats would like to be able to find a way to pay him to give more of these kinds of speeches," Jim Manley said.
In the past two months, the former vice president has become a frequent critic of the new administration in numerous national media interviews.
But House Minority Leader John Boehner said Cheney's voice boosts his party's cause.
"Listen, Dick Cheney has been around this town for the last 35 years -- 40 years. He knows how this town works, and frankly, he's very knowledgeable when it comes to the strategies that the administration took with regard to dealing with this terrorist threat. And having him out there, outlining those strategies and why we're engaged in this, I think, is helpful to the debate," Boehner said.
Republicans were quick to side with Cheney on Obama's plan to close Guantanamo, with Rep. Lamar Smith charging that the president should "put Americans' safety ahead of an image problem he himself created by making a campaign promise to close Gitmo."
"The administration asserts that transferring terrorists from a detention facility on an isolated island to a prison inside the U.S. will make Americans safer. The administration's claims are completely contrary to common sense. By the president's logic, we should close all other jails and prisons, too," Smith, R-Texas, said in a statement.
Obama's plans to close the detention center have been met with opposition from both sides of the aisle in Congress. Following in the steps of House Democrats, Senate Democrats on Tuesday rejected the administration's request for $80 million to close the facility.
They instead asked that Obama first submit a plan spelling out what the administration will do with the prisoners when it closes the prison.
Both chambers of Congress also passed similar measures that would prevent the detainees from being transferred to the United States. Obama on Thursday pledged not to release any Guantanamo Bay detainees who threaten the United States.
He also pointed out that no one has ever escaped from a federal "supermax" prison.
Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado, whose district houses a supermax prison, adamantly does not want detainees brought to that prison.
"The president did not say where people would go who were convicted under military tribunals or who are to be released by courts or who are in the 'too dangerous to release' category, so his plan today really has a lot of gaps in it," he said.
And Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, said it would be "dangerous, naive and a threat to America's national security" to put detainees on U.S. soil.
But Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin said he thinks the U.S. can safely house terror detainees.
"The president is right in saying Guantanamo is more than a detention facility. It's become a symbol. And sadly, it's become an organizing tool around the world for terrorism. The sooner that we bring Guantanamo to a close, the better," he said.
Rep. Mike Pence, chairman of the House Republican Conference, accused the president of continuing to "to bow to world opinion" when it comes to Guantanamo.
"Let me say emphatically: Mr. President, public safety comes before public relations. The American people don't want to know how closing Guantanamo Bay will make us more popular, they want to know how closing Guantanamo Bay will make us safer," he said.
House Republican Whip Eric Cantor said closing the prison is "too complex an issue to rush to resolution."
"At the end of the day, when it comes to terrorism, no detail is too small, and we must have only one priority: the safety and security of the American people," he said.
Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said "political rhetoric has entirely drowned out reason and reality" in the debate over where to put the detainees.
"Our criminal justice system handles extremely dangerous criminals, and more than a few terrorists, and it does so safely and effectively. We try very dangerous people in our courts and hold very dangerous people in our jails in Vermont and throughout the country. We have the best justice system in the world," he said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi praised Obama's address as "a sensible, balanced approach to the treatment of detainees and to the handling of state secrets."
One decision that pleased some conservatives was Obama's move to restart former President Bush's military commissions.
Former Navy lawyer Charles Swift, who won a landmark Supreme Court ruling that knocked down the Bush administration's system of military commissions, said U.S. laws already cover the "vast majority" of cases the Obama administration will face.
"The previous administration sought ways around the law," he said. "This president seeks to follow the law and keep us safe, and he believes in the long haul -- as do I -- that following the law and following our values in conjunction with holding terrorists is absolutely essential to both winning the war and being safe."
Swift said Cheney's defense of waterboarding "mystifies me."
"I want to ascribe to people the best of motives, and I presume that the former vice president believes for whatever reason that force is the only thing that works," he said. "Unfortunately, that goes against all of the evidence."
As far as former President Bush's thoughts on the dueling speeches, he didn't watch them.
A source close to Bush said the former president was traveling at the time, en route to New Mexico, where he is the keynote speaker Thursday night at a fundraising dinner for a scholarship program for students at Artesia High School.
You can find the full text, as well as video, of their respective speeches here (Obama) and here (Cheney). The latter also does a good job of critiquing Cheney's individual points, which I won't go into detail with here, but are certainly worth a read. As an addendum to all of this, there is another article on CNN about Gitmo:
Without further information I don't feel quite comfortable making the claim that keeping Guantanamo Bay is directly contributing to terrorism and hurting our national security, but the evidence is certainly beginning to point in that direction (as many people have postulated on these forums in the past).Preliminary intelligence assessments show more than 14 percent of detainees released from Guantanamo Bay have returned or are suspected of having returned to terrorism activities, an administration official with knowledge of the Defense Department's information said
That number, which reflects data through the beginning of 2009, has gone up slightly from statistics compiled through the end of 2008, when the recidivism rate was considered to be 11 percent, according to the administration official. It had been at 7 percent in earlier years, but the Pentagon has not disclosed what time frame that encompasses.
The official emphasized the latest data is still being verified within the military intelligence community, but it appears likely to show that the rate of recidivism has reached more than 14 percent.
As of May 15, approximately 540 detainees had been transferred to other countries, according to the Justice Department. Some were detained in their home countries, but others have since been released. Two-hundred-forty detainees are still held in the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Earlier this year, the Pentagon reported that 11 percent of detainees released and returned to their home countries were either "confirmed or suspected" of returning to the 'battlefield," the official said. The official emphasized that while the previous report was a more formal assessment, this most recent information is considered a "not fully vetted" assessment of the increase.
"What's clear is we are not seeing recidivism on the decline," the source said.
The latest publicly released information came in January, when Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morell said 62 former Guantanamo detainees may have returned to terrorism or military activity. That number included 18 who had been directly tied to an attack or attacks and 43 who were suspected of such action, Pentagon officials said at the time. The Pentagon never publicly released the full report.
