Friday, August 05, 2005
Shrinking Gitmo
The Bush administration is negotiating the transfer of nearly 70 percent of the detainees at the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to three countries as part of a plan, officials said, to share the burden of keeping suspected terrorists behind bars.
The three countries are Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. How quickly will the left complain that this is unlawful rendition? Human Rights Watch is already hinting in that direction:
"The Guantanamo issue is clearly a liability for the Bush administration, and emptying it has become a priority," said John Sifton, a specialist on Afghanistan and detainee issues at Human Rights Watch, an international monitoring group. "It's not a victory for human rights if a whole set of people deprived of their liberty are then moved to another place and continued to be deprived of their liberty unlawfully."
Human Rights Watch does a lot of important work, but they are not being constructive in the case of the Gitmo detainees. They don't want them in Gitmo, and they don't want them released to their home countries. Apparently the only solution that will satisfy them is an adversary proceeding in a federal court with all the protections of American criminal defendants. That is, of course, an absurd position that no American president -- not Bill Clinton, not John Kennedy, and certainly not the sainted FDR -- would have adopted.
If you find any particularly absurd allegations in this regard, please dump the links in the comments.
UPDATE: Welcome Roger L. Simon readers. Roger, who sounds more cynical than he is (entrepreneurs are never actually cynical -- only a romantic would try to herd bloggers), thinks that knee-jerk anti-Americanism is all about the Benjamins:
A kneejerk reaction from the rights group? I have my own response to the NGO and to others of its ilk. Whatever they do these days seems motivated first by economic self-interest. Anti-Americanism is what pays their bills and generates their executive salaries. Is that a kneejerk reaction of my own? Undoubtedly. But it could be tracked. A correlation study between anti-American rhetoric and fundraising at NGOs could be done relatively easy.
I get a lot of left-wing fundraising mail at my house (don't ask). I believe Roger has just inspired me to start opening it.
1 Comments:
By 
Cardinalpark, at
Fri Aug 05, 11:25:00 AM:
I am such an avid fan of Gitmo, I bought a Camp Gitmo tee shirt. Not very popular with the Hamptons crowd. Pretty hilarious to see the various shades they turn.
I recommend it.
And for anybody who heads out to the eastern end of Long Island, I recommend a stop over at Cyril's, a roadhouse on Route 27 between Amagansett and Montauk. Cyril is a completely pickled former marine who makes his politics and warrior tendencies public, and it makes for an enjoyable juxtaposition to see intoxicated NY liberals hanging out under a Semper Fi flag, Bush Cheney stickers and we support the local police banners.
The place is packed after 6pm, and it slows traffic on 27.
Here's to Cyril!
It's where I learned of the Gitmo tees....
