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I love how people are buying this detainee’s story with little question. He just happened to be in Pakistan in September 2001, trying to “sell silver.” Or as they all say, I was just selling diapers. Or honey. Or teaching the Koran. Did you just leave the matinee of “The Conspirator?” Where you learned that the military is bad and detainees are good?

One should realize that the U.S. has gone over these stories many times. There is a reason they didn’t buy his story and held onto this guy, until he’d been out of the loop long enough + they got Morocco to take him back.

One should not forget that lying to the infidel to achieve one’s ends and manipulating the Western media and gullible leftists are hallmarks of al-Qaeda’s asymmetric warfare strategy.

Now, I say try them before a military tribunal and be done with it. But with the conflict created by populating the Justice Dept with the same Covington and Burling “lawyers” that represented these detainees, that
conflict makes prosecution impossible. Unless and until the administration changes. So Obama and Holder are the reason for the last 2+ years of detention without trial.

My take is that they shelter the real high-ranking terrorists while turning over chumps in their place.

Yes, although this occurred in Afghanistan and Iraq, too, and it was often not at high-ranking levels. It was dudes turning in their local rivals, getting the double-win of eliminating a rival and collecting $5000 of US taxpayer cash.

Also, taxi drivers who had no clue who their fare was were taken when a baddie was captured. The Coalition forces prudently captured and interrogated the drivers to be sure they didn't actually know who the fare was, rather than entirely field-determine it (as some seem to think we should be doing). Thus, the net was cast wide, knowing many innocents would be caught up. (BTW, I've never been to Gitmo, nor have I taken anyone into custody, but I've spoken with interrogators of these detainees, and my biggest high-school rival was an interrogator for some of the biggies and their drivers...and what I've heard is consistent.)

And how about the anti-Communist Uighurs, who escaped from China into Afghanistan/Pakistan and were picked up by bounty hunters and turned over to us. Some were found to be enemy combatants, but many were cleared. The Uighur detainees cleared of terrorism charges can't be sent back to China or they'll be killed.

There's lots of info out on these anti-Chinese Muslims out there, and it's rather bothersome to me that it's rarely mentioned on FR. It's bothersome that people escaping from a restrictive regime are confined by us for years after being cleared of wrongdoing. We can debate whether training to fight China is an evil act or whether any Muslim weapon training is bad or whatever, but we have cleared these people. For FReepers to ignore the issue seems to fall right into the stereotype of "ignorant conservatives."

In any case, summing up, the flag shouldn't be kept hidden, and we shouldn't mistreat those who might not be guilty.