Posted on 09/29/2009 1:09:58 PM PDT by jazusamo
About a dozen retired generals and admirals, trying to add momentum to President Barack Obama’s effort to close the Guantanamo Bay military prison, are accusing former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz of scaremongering about the dangers of closing it.
“It’s up to all of us to say these arguments advanced by Cheney and his acolytes are nonsense and that really what they’re doing is undermining our national security by delaying the date at which Guantanamo is closed,” retired Brig. Gen. James Cullen, a former chief judge of the Army’s Court of Criminal Appeals, told POLITICO Tuesday.
“Some of the fear issues that are being raised in this are really unfortunate. It gets people excited about things they shouldn’t be excited about and impedes doing what is critical to this country. Get that damn symbol off the table,” said retired Gen. David Maddox, a former Army commander-in-chief for Europe. “We take a setback every time somebody, whether it’s the vice president or his daughter comes out and says the things that they say….We have to get out there again and just keep pounding.”
The former vice president and his daughter declined comment on the criticism.
The former military officers, whose Washington visit was organized by Human Rights First, argued rather bitterly that the Cheneys have exaggerated the risks of bringing Guantanamo prisoners from Cuba to the United States.
“Can you imagine getting a terrorist from Guantanamo convicted and put in a federal penitentiary in your town?” Maddox asked. “Have you ever checked who the hell’s in there already? Have any of them gotten out? The person who we’re putting in is probably a heck of lot less dangerous than most of them who are already in there.”
Administration officials recently acknowledged that Guantanamo may not be closed by Obama’s deadline of Jan. 22. But retired Army Maj. Gen. Tony Taguba, who investigated the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq, said the president was smart to set a mark.
“It forces us to have an end state,” Taguba said. “It cannot be open in perpetuity because we’re having this so called long war against terrorism.”
The retired officers met Monday with Attorney General Eric Holder and planned to confer later with Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair and Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn.
Holder gave no indication of when the administration might settle on a U.S. site to relocate Guantanamo prisoners, the former military leaders said.
Obama announced the one-year-closure plan on his second full day in office. But the administration lost control of the legislative process in April when the Senate voted 90-6 against funding for the closure. Democrats joined Republicans, who argued that it was a foolish risk to bring suspected terrorists into the United States.
“Closing Guantanamo is of a strategic value,” Taguba said. “Seeing people in orange jumpsuits and whatever have you creates such an excitement for people to be jihadists and terrorists…It’s not helping us.”
They can yell all they want to have GITMO closed and blame everybody but themselves, but you just can’t close GITMO until you have some alternative. Obama spoke too soon. Seems like he (HE?) often dives into the shallow water IMHO.
Yep, and he may be having second thoughts on it.
Maddox is either completely disingenuous; i.e., willing to lie through his teeth, or he is a pea-brain! The issue is NOT escapes or "getting out". The issue is allowing these military prisoners access to the U.S. court system where they will be released due to different rules of evidence.
and what do the other some odd thousand or so admirals and generals say?
Sarah Palin-Liz Cheney 2012
this argument has never made any sense to me; they look like losers. I'd think that's why kids would rather wear a Yankee hat than a Washington National hat; more T shirts with Manning than Schuler.
Imagine that: Politicians who are smarter and wiser than some so-called "retired generals and admirals."
Something smells funny about the aforementioned generals, especially when one of them refers to "this so called long war against terrorism."
Once again, the Cheneys are wise to not comment on this sham.
I believe Human Rights First only getting a dozen general officers to attend speaks volumns.
Somebody give me a list of these “generals and admirals”.
(Sept. 28) -- Liz Cheney, the older daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, is emerging from her father's shadow to become a Republican star in her own right.
In a profile by The New York Times, conservatives praise Liz Cheney, saying she's key to the Republican Party's future. At a recent gathering of conservative women in Nashville, Tenn., Rebecca Wales called her "a red state rock star."
There fixed it. Probably the types who spent their entire careers as staff pogues.
I thought the problem was with incarcerating people without trial. How does moving them from Guantanomo to another prison solve that problem.?
They will be forced to bring these people to trial, these people will get turned loose by Judges like the General who wants them moved to Ameirca and then they will kill more people.
First of all the General is a Lawyer and I doubt ever served a day in combat. Second, the only ones that this is a symbol to is the left wingers. I doubt Ahmed getting ready to blow himself up gives two shits about the symbolism of Gitmo.
Agree, this group is irrelevant in the issue.
http://www.bing.com/search?q=escaped+prisoners&form=QBRE&qs=n
"Escaped Prisoners" search on Bing.com produced 3,730,000 results.
It flips me out to know that we have so many craven liberals in our officer corps.
You can bet that if there are so many retired ones who lean left, there are lots of active ones who do the same, sadly.
Absolutely!
When I read the article I was surprised Clark or McPeak’s name wasn’t there.
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