Gitmo

Barack Obama, detainees, Gitmo, Guantanamo, Keep Gitmo Open

Andrew C. McCarthy: ‘If you didn’t have Gitmo, you’d have to invent it’

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As President Barack Obama has stated, the detention camp at U.S. Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba is a professionally operated facility. As he acknowledges, many of those detained there still pose a threat. Our troops and innocent civilians were and are endangered by the 61 previously released who went back to a life of terrorism; a number have been killed or were recaptured.

This morning, Gold Star family members, 9/11 family members, and former members of our military will join Move America Forward at the National Press Club to ask that the decision to close Gitmo be reversed.

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Updated, 1:20 PM Eastern: Video from this morning’s press conference added. Due to technical problems from the source, it begins after Melanie Morgan’s introduction and during questions and answers with Senator James Inhofe. He was followed by brief comments by and a Q & A with Gold Star mother Debbie Lee, 9/11 family members Lorraine Arias-Beliveau, Geraldine Davey, Hamilton Peterson, and Debra Burlingame:

Live Video streaming by Ustream

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Original posted continued:

We ask that you view Move America Forward’s new television advertisement here (or by going to the top right of this site), sign the petition to Keep Gitmo Open, and become better informed about Guantanamo. The terrorists at Gitmo are not common criminals just doing time for their crimes; nearly all remain our sworn enemies, wage a daily war against our heroic troops guarding them, and would return to terrorism if released.

Bringing detainees to within our borders and providing the enemy our Constitutional rights of due process would pose real dangers to our national security and significant legal challenges to the Department of Justice.

We must keep Gitmo open.

Andrew C. McCarthy is the legal-affairs editor at National Review and the author of the national bestseller ‘Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad’ (Encounter Books 2008).. He explained this morning why keeping Gitmo open and detainees out of our federal courts is imperative:

9/11, Barack Obama, Boumediene v. Bush, Debra Burlingame, detainees, Gitmo, Guantanamo, September 11, USS Cole

President Obama wrong on SCOTUS decision, admitted Gitmo is ‘pristine, professional operation’ to 9/11 and USS Cole families

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Friday, Debra Burlingame was among the 40 family members of the 2,975 murdered on September 11 and the 17 sailors murdered aboard the USS Cole who met with President Obama. During the meeting, President Obama was wrong on the law, wrong about what Boumediene v. Bush afforded the detainees held at Guantanamo, and stated the public’s perception about Guantanamo is confused with Abu Ghraib. … There is more.

She spoke with talk-radio host Steve Malzberg this afternoon about the meeting; here is the audio:

Editor — Ms. Burlingame, a former attorney and a director of the National September 11 Memorial Foundation, is the sister of Charles F. “Chic” Burlingame III, the pilot of American Airlines flight 77, which was crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. In addition, she co-founded 9/11 Families for a Safe & Strong America, in 2004.

Update: See a report on today’s ‘Keep Gitmo Open‘ press conference in D.C., with Senator James Inhofe, 9/11 family members Lorraine Arias-Beliveau, Geraldine Davie, Hamilton Peterson, and Debra Burlingame, and Gold Star mother Debbie Lee.