Adams or Jefferson in the Islamic world

You don't want to miss Christopher Hitchens today. He connects the dots between the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo to Obama's speech at Cairo and finds where Western assumptions are only helping the enemy:

Yet if we think it probable or possible that a man would only mutate into such a monster after undergoing the Guantanamo experience, then I can suggest one reason why that might be. Nothing prepared me for the way in which the authorities at the camp have allowed the most extreme religious cultists among the inmates to be the organizers of the prisoners' daily routine. Suppose that you were a secular or unfanatical person caught in the net by mistake; you would still find yourself being compelled to pray five times a day (the guards are not permitted to interrupt), to have a Quran in your cell, and to eat food prepared to halal (or Sharia) standards. I suppose you could ask to abstain, but, in such a case, I wouldn't much fancy your chances. The officers in charge were so pleased by this ability to show off their extreme broad-mindedness in respect of Islam that they looked almost hurt when I asked how they justified the use of taxpayers' money to create an institution dedicated to the fervent practice of the most extreme version of just one religion. To the huge list of reasons to close down Guantanamo, add this: It's a state-sponsored madrassa.

The same near-masochistic insistence on taking the extreme as the norm was also present in Obama's smoothly delivered speech in the Egyptian capital. Some of what he said was well-intentioned if ill-informed. The United States should not have overthrown the elected government of Iran in 1953, but when it did so, it used bribed mullahs and ayatollahs to whip up anti-Communist sentiment against a secular regime. The John Adams administration in the 1796 Treaty of Tripoli did indeed proclaim that the United States had no quarrel with Islam as such (and, even more important, that the United States itself was in no sense a Christian nation), but the treaty failed to stop the Barbary states from invoking the Quran as permission to kidnap and enslave travelers on the high seas, and thus Thomas Jefferson was later compelled to send a fleet and the Marines to put down the trade. One hopes that Obama does not prefer Adams to Jefferson in this regard.

Any person with the smallest pretense to cultural literacy knows that there is no such place or thing as "the Muslim world," or, rather, that it consists of many places and many things. (It is precisely the aim of the jihadists to bring it all under one rulership preparatory to making Islam the world's only religion.) But Obama said nothing about the schism between Sunni and Shiites, or about the argument over Sufism, or about Ahmadi and Ismaili forms of worship and practice. All this was conceded to the umma: the highly ideological notion that a person is first and foremost defined by their adherence to a religion and that all concepts of citizenship and rights take second place to this theocratic diktat. Nothing could be more reactionary.

Senator Webb wants to keep Club Gitmo open

"Well, let me back up for a minute." - Senator Jim Webb (D-VA)

Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) said on ABC's This Week that he was no longer in favor of closing the detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay on the President's time table. (Senator Jon Kyl R-AZ was also there.)

STEPHANOPOULOS: I don't know -- well, let me just interrupt you there, because I have an AP story from April 2007 where you said -- it says that you told reporters that detainees should either be declared prisoners of war or charged in the American judicial system.

"We can't just continue to hold people in limbo without charges for this period of time and still call ourselves Americans."

WEBB: If I said charged in the American judicial system, I would mean under the traditions of the rules of evidence and these sorts of things. But my view has always been that we need to move these people forward.

We need to find those people who should be held accountable and hold them accountable. And people who have been held inappropriately should be released.

But I don't believe that the situation with people in Guantanamo, as opposed to others who have conducted activities in the United States are the same. I think that the people who have been held in Guantanamo are being charged essentially for acts of international terror, for acts of war, and they don't belong in judicial system, and they don't belong in our jails.

STEPHANOPOULOS: This is what the commissions...

WEBB: And I don't believe -- I do, I do. But with this caveat, we need commissions like this because there are issues of evidence that you cannot take care of inside the regular American court system, classified information that might have an impact on how we collect intelligence and those sorts of things.

And there are facilities built in Guantanamo right now that are able to do that.

My favorite part of the interview:

STEPHANOPOULOS: You laid out nicely the various groups of detainees that the president has to deal with, which, of course, brings us to the question of, what to do with those detainees once Guantanamo is closed, as the president has called for.

I know this is creating a lot of controversy in the Senate because of the possibility that some of these detainees may have to come to the United States.

And the attorney general, Eric Holder, was asked about this at the Senate this week, and he said very clearly that no dangerous detainees will be released in the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC HOLDER, ATTORNEY GENERAL: I don't know, whatever quantum of proof, however you want to describe it, to believe that a person posed a danger to the United States, we will do all that we can to ensure that that person remains detained and does not become a danger to the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANOPOULOS: And is that enough assurance for you, Senator Kyl?

KYL: Well, understand that we've already released those who, after careful examination, we thought didn't pose a danger. And the number is somewhere between 30 and 60 who turned out to continue to conduct their activities against us after they were released.

The remaining 240 or so do pose a danger. So there aren't any left that can easily be released because they don't pose a danger.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, that's not exactly true, right? And I want to bring Senator Webb in on this, because I know there are about 17, I believe, Chinese Uighurs, they are called, who have been ordered released by a federal court, they've determined not to be a threat to the United States.

And the administration has been working on plans to bring them to Virginia. Can you accept them in your state?

WEBB: Well, let me back up for a minute. The answer is no.

STEPHANOPOULOS: No?

WEBB: No. And I'll -- and then let me explain why. But to back it up, the numbers that we've seen in my office are about 800 people have gone through Guantanamo.

The majority of those who have been released, we're down to 220 to 240, so the majority of those that have been released have been released to third countries, not actually released out into the open -- you know, to where they can... STEPHANOPOULOS: Just let out the door, right.

WEBB: Yes, right. So we don't know really where they have gone. This other group deserves due process. They deserve, in the right kind of environment, and I support what the president is doing on the military commissions, to have their cases examined, to see whether or not they should continue to be detained.

The situation with the Chinese Uighurs that you're talking about, on the one hand, it can be argued that they were simply conducting dissident activities against the government of China.

On the other, they accepted training from al Qaeda and as a result they have taken part in terrorism. I don't believe they should come to the United States.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Not to the United States and not Virginia.

WEBB: No, I don't believe so.

KYL: No, I totally agree.

In other words, I was totally in favor of closing Club Gitmo and bringing them to the United States. Then somebody showed me the file. Whoah. What happened to the accountants and the actuaries? Man, what a bunch of thugs. "Capable of blowing up an entire airport with cleaning supplies found in any airport janitorial closet. Spent two years training with al Qaeda to be a vicious killer. Really dangerous." And then they said they want put them where? Virginia? My state? You gotta be kidding me. I got an idea. Let's put 'em on an island somewhere. Oh, wait. They are on an island. F--k it. Just keep 'em there.

You know that's exactly what happened. Hilarious to watch Democrats suddenly stop believing in "artificial timelines" when it's a Democratic President who wants to release some of these guys in Virginia. Video at the Huffington Post.

Republican radio address criticizes Obama over Guantanamo

It ain't just in audio anymore. This week Senator Kit Bond of Missouri questions the Obama plan to close the detention center at Guantanamo. Nobody wants them here, but that seems to be part of the Obama Administration's plan. And you can't just release them to fight again.
As Senator Bond points out, while the Obama administration has made closing the prison a priority, "the highest priority must be keeping America safe."

Finding a home for terrorists set to O Fortuna

I love Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. I had to post the video.

Timely, too, of course. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told the media today,

Q Senator, Republicans [argue] that it might not be safe to keep the Gitmo detainees in the United States. Do you share that concern?

SEN. REID: (Laughs.) …They have marched down to the Senate floor often and said that very same thing: ‘we don't want these detainees walking the streets of America,’ or words to that effect. Well, nor does -- nor does anyone else.

Well, except the Obama Administration:

The Obama administration is preparing to admit into the United States as many as seven Chinese Muslims who have been imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay in the first release of any of the detainees into this country, according to current and former U.S. officials.

Their release is seen as a crucial step to plans, announced by President Obama during his first week in office, to close the prison and relocate the detainees. Administration officials also believe that settling some of them in American communities will set an example, helping to persuade other nations to accept Guantanamo detainees too.

But the decision to release the Chinese Muslims, known as Uighurs, is not final and faces challenges from within the government, as well as likely public opposition. Among government agencies, the Homeland Security Department has registered concerns about the plan.

You thought the skateboarding kids that run across your lawn were annoying...

As long as we're saving money

Senate Republicans have something to say about cutting $100 million and closing the Guatanomo Bay prison.

There goes the neighborhood

You thought the state putting sexual predators in your neighborhood was bad.

Now playing at Guantanamo

I'd tell them everything that I know.