Posted on 03/27/2008 6:12:07 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
5 Ex-Chief Diplomats: Close Guantanamo Mar 27 08:46 PM US/Eastern By GREG BLUESTEIN Associated Press Writer ATHENS, Ga. (AP) - Five former U.S. secretaries of state on Thursday urged the next presidential administration to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp and open a dialogue with Iran.
The former chiefs of American diplomacy, who served in Democratic and Republican administrations, reached a consensus on the two issues at a conference in Athens aimed at giving the next president some bipartisan foreign policy advice. Each of them said shuttering the prison camp in Cuba would bolster America's image abroad.
"It says to the world: 'We are now going back to our traditional respective forms of dealing with people who potentially committed crimes,'" said Colin Powell, who served as President Bush's first secretary of state.
Powell was joined by Henry Kissinger, James Baker III, Warren Christopher and Madeleine Albright, who sat in a round-table discussion sponsored by the University of Georgia at a sold-out conference center in downtown Athens.
Kissinger called Guantanamo a "blot on us" and agreed it should be closed, but wondered aloud about the consequences of a closure.
Baker, a lawyer who served in President George H.W. Bush's Cabinet, said he has struggled with its legal implications.
"It gives us a very, very bad name, not just internationally," he said. "I have a great deal of difficulty understanding how we can hold someone, pick someone up, particularly someone who might be an American citizen—even if they were caught somewhere abroad, acting against American interests—and hold them without ever giving them an opportunity to appear before a magistrate."
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Stay in your retirement and shut up.
They better just shut up and fade away , their expertise, skills and abilities have already been witnessed and judged. Why listen too em make same mistakes over and over again ?:o)
after the last terrorist uses this room......
It’s what diplomats do and will continue to do forever even though it bears no fruit whatsoever. What, if anything, has that “illustrious” group accomplished? And puleeeze don’t mention any Nobel prizes or other awards. What diplomatic problems did they solve?
Diplomats think the answer to every situation is diplomacy, just like warriors think the answer to every situation is war.
My problem with closing Guantanamo is that many of the people in it will go back to what they were doing before - planning to violently attack American interests and American citizens. I believe you close POW camps when the enemy is defeated.
Probably the same RINOs who are supporting the pro illegal gringo Juan McPain for el presidente.
Wow, that's really uhh....stupid. Well mr. powell, you were hired because you are black, albright because she was a woman, the other 3 have no excuse, they are just idiots.
Appeasing our enemies doesn't work. They want to kill us. Your job is to convince them not to, otherwise they meet the US Armed Forces.
Closing Gitmo according to these 5 bipartisian smooks...? would improve our standing in the world??????????? Yep, as long as we kiss both “cheeks” of the enemy, we earn the love and admiration of the world????????? BULL!!!!!!!!!!! These 5 brave souls can kiss my grits. They have the courage of a cooked noodle....spineless.
Wonder if McCain put them up to it????
no
Wow. One can only wonder how much damage these five pieces of sh!+ did to America in the name of appeasing a loud handful of Euro-socialist malcontents, anarchists, and anti-capitalists. "Image abroad". (spit)
and hold them without ever giving them an opportunity to appear before a magistrate.”
+++++++++++++++++++
Wow, war has sure changed over time. I guess POWs are now considered alleged POWs as it has to be proved in a court that their classification as POWs is valid. Then maybe we can require all soldiers and officers involved on our side to be present at the trials and present evidence. We’ll just take our witnesses off the battlefield to ensure a fair trial for each and every one of the enemy combatants.
Hmmmmmmmm, the take no prisoner approach doesn’t seem so far fetched after all. Naturally in order to ensure fairness investigation staff must be flown to the battlefield to question witnesses for the defense and those people would have to be flown to the United States to testify, housed, fed and given immunity for their own crimes. Courts would be backed up for years. I guess we’d house and feed witnesses for however many years is necessary.
I’ll go along with that.
Close Gitmo and let the inmates swim home.
And open a dialogue with Iran. My preferred opening would be something along the lines of “Give us back our embassy, you pig-humping [Monica Lewinsky]s!”
Each of them said shuttering the prison camp in Cuba would bolster America’s image abroad.
+++++++++++++++
Who abroad? I couldn’t care less about the “abroads” I know about. Some of the others of Europe can kiss my behind the next time they need to be saved. I can say this with some pride. My image of most of the “abroad” is just as negative as theirs is of America. It sickens me that we’re still defending and supporting much of the “abroad” while they bash us at every opportunity. F***em.
So the Klintoon doctrine of terrorism as crime holds with Colin Powell. Some general he is.
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