If Guantánamo Closes, use ADAK!
by Ken BlackwellI have to say, I did not agree with Sen. McCain during the 2008 campaign when he took the Guantánamo issue off the table by endorsing candidate Obama’s call to close it. The U.S. detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, is an ideal place to hold military tribunals for jihadists captured on the battlefield. And it would still be the ideal place to hold Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year old Nigerian jihadist, who tried to blow up his inbound jet in Detroit on Christmas Day.
Claims that detainees were being mistreated there were false. Capt. Pete Hegseth of Veterans for Freedom served at Guantánamo during the time that Newsweek and other liberal sources were spreading false claims that U.S. guards had “defiled” copies of the Koran. These false reports circulated throughout the world and sparked riots among Muslims.
Capt. Hegseth served a year at “Gitmo” with the New Jersey National Guard. He supervised guards at the detention facilities. He set the record straight. The only time their Korans were besmirched was when the detainees themselves threw human waste on their guards. Gitmo was never Abu Ghraib. No photos of abuse by guards ever came out of Gitmo, because there was none.
But if, after all is said and done, sensible voices in Congress do not prevail, then I have a recommendation for where the detainees should be held and tried. Adak was an important naval installation throughout the Cold War. It’s an island in the central Aleutians, that thousand-mile chain off Alaska.
Adak has many facilities that were in use by the Navy that could be retrofitted now for detainee trials and long-term detention. Adak’s climate is severe. It’s cold. It’s overcast much of the time. During some snowstorms, “whiteout” conditions prevail. Then, it’s dangerous for any personnel to venture outside of buildings unescorted.
A number of U.S. Senators are pressing the administration for the names of political appointees to the U.S. Justice Department who previously served as counsel to the Guantánamo detainees. We deserve to know who those public officials are. We deserve to be assured that none of these lawyers are involved in the decision to close Gitmo or to give civilian trials to jihadists.
This is not suggested in spite. As Lincoln said, “I shall do nothing in malice.” The business he was in was too weighty for that. That should be our watchword, too.
For our military guards and their families, there is this consolation. Many of the Navy families who spent two-year tours on Adak recall their time there with fondness. The severe weather conditions and the remoteness of the island station bred a real fellowship among the hardy folk who called Adak home. We owe these self-sacrificing Americans our respect and our gratitude. Adak would not be a punishment assignment for them.
Adak’s primary virtue is its remoteness. As with Gitmo, the American people would not have to worry about any escapes. It’s five hours behind Washington. One of the most pressing concerns is that jihadists whom we are holding should not be permitted to inflame other prisoners among our U.S. prisoner population.
Finally, we do not want any jihadists to attack U.S. prisons, even on a suicide mission, because this administration unwisely brought them to the mainland. Adak, like Gitmo, could be secured from such attacks.
Once again, we should not close Gitmo. But, if the Obama administration takes this unnecessary and expensive step, Adak, would be a good alternative.
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93 Comments
keep Gitmo open! Senator Lindsey Graham, traitor from South Carolina, No! Graham does not speak for anyone except McCain. No. All terrorist trials should be held at Gitmo!
Excellent idea! Here's another: Send terrorists to Adak and keep Gitmo open to warehouse idiots who incite Islamist violence, as did the liars at Newsweek for their bogus stories about Korans being flushed down toilets.
Keep them in their bare feet and a thin robe…I doubt if they'd try
anything then…They'll be begging to go back to Gitmo….lol
I still think it is pretty ironic that everyone is concerned about the treatment of this prisoners and their environment and they want to move them from a nice temperate location to Illinois. Does that make any sense? You hear the complaints now, just wait until you get the "They left me out in the snow without a jacket" complaints.
However, Adad would make much more sense. Remote AND cold, just like their hearts.
PERFECT!!! Let em freeze their butts off!
I say give the scumbag terrorists a change of scenery- winters in Adak and summers in Gitmo. That is change they can believe in.
Great idea Mr. Black, I like the way you think. I gon't understand who this administration can get away with this lack of transparency in the justice department.
Brilliant! I was stationed on Adak in the early 90's.
Gitmo is perfect. These idiots think that something that works has to be fixed. They seem to care more about what "The Guardian" thinks than for our country's security.
Putting them in Adak would cause a huge uproar over in the ACLU fever swamps. Of course, they would claim that putting them in Adak would be "cruel and unusual," and torture, heedless of the fact that our Navy personnel there endure the same elements…but they're loyal, patriotic Americans so they don't count.
Good idea! I live by Thomson, IL. Last weekend, I drove down over the river bluffs to the east of Thomson. Got a great view of the prison, with all the homes right in the same vicinity. Nice little homes, a small little village, all within walking distance of the lock-up. A nice little school nearby. Farmers driving their machinery, kids on bikes.
ADAK certainly makes more sense. IF any bad guys do want to do harm to us because of GITMO north, Thomson and nearby Fulton/Clinton are nice little plums, ripe for the picking.
Adak would be perfect. Install a blockade around the island, air drop terrorist and their supplies and when their time comes for trial we'll see if they're still around.
Great idea, but to be sure the ACLU will take it to court, crying "Cruel and Unusual Punishment". Furthermore, it would be liable to disturb Algores polar bear herd……….
Excellent idea!
There's a way we could try suspected terrorists and be done with it pretty fast. Terrorists are like wood… wood floats. Take suspected terrorists out in a boat in the nearest ocean to their capture, toss them in the ocean. If they float, shot them. If they sink… oops, our bad!
With global warming going like it is, it would be no time until the climate there was just like GITMO anyhow.
as per s. penn and mucho moore adopting these scumbags, they would love it, plenty of tickle fights etc.
I would also propose sending members of the congress and senate to serve as staff.
I find it to be absurd to even contemplate closing GITMO. Its use for its current purpose seems to me
to be well thought out policy. Just as I would expect from Don Rumsfeld, who IMO was demonized
mercilessly. Wherever the next facility to house these detainees ends up being, the media campaign
demonizing it will begin the minute announced. Such is the world we live in.
This alternative in Alaska is interesting, however it is not likely to be considered due to lack of proximity
to 'o's Chi-town cronies, who I'm sure are salivating over the creative contracts they will be able to secure
if the Thompson Il. venue is chosen. There are just too many opportunities for the thug-ocracy surround-
ing 'o', not to move the jihadis to his home state.
Both are terrorists in their own way. One place would do nicely.
This would be a great place to send them! I landed there once and sat on a plane awaiting orders to move with an F-4 Squadron. Talk about remote!!
It would also solve future "torture" issues…they would start talking just to get the hell out of there!!
Great idea! But I'm afraid the likes of Penn and Moore are already in an incestuous relationship with jihadi internationals.
Can someone please tell me how "defiling" the Koran is a form of "mistreating" a gang of murderers?
The Koran should be defiled. It's the source for why these murderers murder.
Great idea, but I'm afraid the likes of Moore and Penn are already in an [admin deleted] relationship with jihadi [admin deleted] internationals.
Russia used Siberia for isolation.
Can you imagine an Arab walking a mile for a Camel in Alaska?
Estimates have the population of Muslims on American soil at 2 to 3 million. Adak and Gitmo – Zero. Keeping prisoners away from any clandestine support groups makes perfect sense to everyone except Obama and the rest of the progressives.
Brilliant! Mr. Blackwell
Something else from the Cold War era comes to mind: Gulag.
You allow the U.S. government to trample the rights of others, then you allow them to use those very tactics against American Citizens. This should give Americans cause for concern, not reactionary politics. Remember the Asian Americans that lost their businesses, and got rounded up to detention in the desert?
It has little to do with protection of the country, but rather a wide sweeping grasp of more power, and less freedom.
I always asked during the course of the campaigns of obummer and mclame HOW IN THE HELL DOES CLOSING GITMO MAKE AMERICA SAFER? The stupid reason was that GITMO was a recruiting tool for terrorists in the middle east. Really? How about jihad jane, and other home grown MORONS? Keep GITMO open and put the SCUM that are housed there on trial AT GITMO! Remember, GITMO SCUM was captured on the BATTLEFIELD. We did not randomly choose muslims off the street. When GITMO gets too crowded, use ADAK. That way when the SCUM that are housed at GITMO complain that it's too hot, we can transfer them to ADAK. If they complain it's too cold at ADAK, we can transfer them to GITMO. The point is: JUST KEEP THE TERRORIST SCUM OUT OF MAINLAND AMERICA! Got it?
More than half of the GITMO detainees have never committed a hostile act towards the United States.
Only a few percent were picked up by U.S. authorities, the rest are rounded up by foreign governments for high cash payments.
Only 8% were Al-Qaeda members.
Only a few percent of GITMO detainees were captured by American Authorities. Most are rounded up by foreign governments for a handsome reward.
Adak is an isolated island in the middle of the Aleutian Island's. I personally had two tours on Adak and loved it. I am a outdoor's kind of person and it was the best tour. I was actually one of the final military members to leave it when we closed it down. I always said that it would be a great place to put a prison. There is no where for escapee's to go.
The DOJ attorneys who represented detainees have been identified. If you actually paid attention to what's going on, you might not look so foolish.
"The current Justice Department employees who previously represented Guantánamo detainees or terrorism suspects are:
* Tony West, the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division.
* Jonathan Cedarbaum, of the Office of Legal Counsel.
* Eric Columbus, senior counsel in the Office of the Deputy Attorney General.
* Karl Thompson, of the Office of Legal Counsel.
* Joseph Guerra, Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General.
* Tali Farhadian, an official in the Office of the Attorney General.
* Beth Brinkmann, Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Division.
Two other DOJ lawyers — Principal Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal and National Security Division Attorney Jennifer Daskal – also formerly represented detainees, but their identities had already been known."
And you know this how? I guess the military tribunal will find that out then huh?
CATO INSTITUTE The Case Against Domestic Military Detention
http://cato-at-liberty.org/2010/03/09/the-case-ag...
Anthony Gregory has researched the issue extensively.
Used to pull into ADAK for liberty (Marines had the Tundra Tavern and the Navy had the Huskey Club) – place sucked out loud. Cold, damp, windy and the sun didn’t even know where the place was.
If your beloved congress would have manned up and declared war, then you might have more of a leg to stand on for indefinate detention based upon being a "suspected terrorist" and military tribunals.
Congress did not man up.
Military tribunals have not been used for decades, can you guess why Greg?
Great idea! Let's see how many ACLUer's would be so willing to go to Adak to represent these guys.
You have given the United States government your full blessing to trample your rights.
It's more about standing up for the American system and American citizens rights.
Thank you – one of the few voices of reason here.
Excellent Idea! I was stationed there in the mid-80s and it fits the bill in its remoteness. I guarantee that these boys won't be wandering off into the tundra and if they thought Gitmo was bad, this will truly be Hell for them.
Bravo Zulu!
A good idea, but won't it upset the eco-nuts?
"Despoiling the environment" and all that jazz.
I know I consider them a stain on the face of the planet.
OH No do not stop at Adak. Go on out to the end of the chain to the AFB on Shemya. Let them experience some wonderful 100 MPH Fog!
Is there a legal, moral, or other implication of hold and trying combatants on US soil (which, believe it or not, both New York and Adak are) versus foreign soil (which the Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba is.
You left out the best part…….. MAKE THEM SWIM BOTH WAYS!!!!
Keep the Jihadists in Gitmo. Send Congress to Adak.
You want to have Gitmo detainees that close to the Alaska pipeline, no there's no reason not to keep them at Gitmo
Non-U.S. citizens have no constitutional rights, you dumbass! Non-U.S. citizens who commit acts of war after an open declaration of war against us are WAR CRIMINALS, you dumbass!
Dumbass! What rights does KSM have? None!
Good idea and no using that canal in Panama to shorten the trip.
Shut up, dumbass!
Although I still like the idea of kenneling them in La Pelosi's district… on Alcatraz.
Sounds like a fantastic idea. Keep up the good work Mr. Blackwell.
Keep them in GITMO, I don't have the change to pay for their airfare. Though I do have enough for bullets for all of them -we'll call it even then.
Close Gitmo down,…. can someone give me a good reason,….well guess what folks,… I have a damn good one,…….
Close Gitmo down,….. and send the PRISONERS OF WAR to Arizona and South Carolina,…..this will be,……
a fantastic lesson for any future potential RINOS.
What a fantastic idea! I have lived in places like that and I think this would be picture perfect for the prisoners.
What a wonderful idea. WOW.
Gitmo will never go away. If they move it to Ill or AK, its still Gitmo. This whole problem is based on bashing the Bush admin and being against anything they did regardless of weather or not you have a valid solution. Close Gitmo was a good campaign slogan but it never made any sense. Lucky for Obama, no one really questioned him on the solution during the campaign.
KSBIZ -We loved the Tundra Tavern! But, once it was closed we had to settle for the Huskey Club.
We used to pull in for fuel/supplies while patrolling the Bering.
Dan,
You REALLY liked ADAK? Man, we were so sick of that place we treated mid patrol breaks in Kodiak like we were in a resort.
You need to reread about rights of non citizens that commit crimes.
You also need to realize that no war was declared by your beloved congress.
Who says who is a suspected terrorist, and who says what is a terrorist activity?
It's not about defending the actions of the people that bombed the World Trade Center.
Don't blindly give the U.S. government the authority to trample your rights.
Mike, I have also been out to Shemya and you are right, Adak would be like sending them to Hawaii.
from the recent Republican fundraising strategy meeting:
Small donors are motivated by "fear" and are "reactionary".
They were dead on target.
I like kind of being away from it all, especially the hiking and fishing. Loved that picture of the barracks on Bering Hill with a snow covered Mt. Moffet in the backround. Just like old.
If all the detainees were terrorists, why did Bush let so many go free? I bet you know why.
Listen up LCR, AG Holder AKA Stedman has been running away from the information requests of various members of the Senate Judiciary Committee for months, you would do well to leatn some facts in the issues.
Any useful idiot knows how to perform copy and past functions…
LOL
I don't usually feed you troll, but today I will make an exception. The American President who shipped the Asians off to internment camps was FDR a progressive who is by far one of the most despised presidents by members on this site.
Obama wants to close Guantanomo so that he can then declare it "unnecessary" and give it to Cuba.
If he does manage to get the terrs out of Gitmo, it will be back in Cuban hands in less than a year.
Ya, what FDR did was wrong. The reactionaries that backed it were wrong as well.
How again would Adak or Marion or Folsom be different from Gitmo, in the recruiting value for future Jihadists and not living up to our "values" as Americans?
These leftists make no sense and are proven liars.
Taking their criticisms seriously is our first mistake.
I always felt that the ex Air Force Base in Maine-Loring AFB would be the perfect spot . Good facilities,big runway and if anyone escapes,where will they go ?
You are welcome dickbrain.
I would still prefer to let anti-American celebrities (Sean Penn, Michael Moore, etc) put their money where their mouths are and adopt them. Take them home, set them up in the guest cottage, cook a halal meal together, have some laughs and an authentic multicultural experience.
The detainees will have to be fitted with electronic tracking devices (like the animals they are) so they can be located after they murder the dopes and escape, but it's win-win. The lefties get what they asked for, we get rid of the outspoken lefties, and when the detainees go back to Gitmo or Adak or Hades or wherever, no one will complain.
excellent idea
Thanks for showing us all your what a vast vocabulary you have, gotta love that new public school education…
Because they were terrorists, you dumbass!
BREAKING NEWS – Eric and Barry just announced that they have decided to keep Gitmo open. "We are keeping our options open for our future resort location should our coup fail."
And Barry pronounced it like a chicken coop.
Adak has too many fishing boats and tramp freighters picking up fish for Asia.
Try St Matthews.
Guantanamo is a good place to hold a lot of people, Constitutional traitors or terrorist, foreign or domestic!!!
As soon as we declare war, we can hold military tribunals. Not until.
So says Judge Napolitano.
Is he wrong?
Adak?
Never happen! Holder and Obama wanted NYC to have it close to a media center to get non-stop and terrorist friendly coverage. Also it makes it easier for terrorist friendly high profile Lynne Stewart type of lawyers do their stuff pro bono and still have einough time to do handle their regular clients. Trials like KSM's will take over a year and New York and DC lawyers would have to stay on Adak for a protracted and indefinite period.
The only other place Holder and Obama would agree to is Washington DC.
Harvey,
My understanding is Adak is still being used, but not for the reason it was used before. The Sea Based X Band missile tracking ship (SBX) is home ported there. This monster is tied in to the Fort Greeley BMD site and handles other duties as well.
My understanding is Adak is still being used, but not for the reason it was used before. The Sea Based X Band missile tracking ship (SBX) is home ported there. This monster is tied in to the Fort Greeley BMD site and handles other duties as well.
You seem to forget the old government slogan " We'll fix it til it's broke".
[...] If Guantánamo closes, use ADAK! [...]
Adak might be a good solution. Considering it's unemployment rate there is probably an opportunity to collect some stimulus money.
Great idea. I served a year there in the Seabees in the 70's. It would cool them off to say the least.
I lived in Alaska for over thirty years. All of my friends still there think Adak would be a great choice and we have been talking about it as a site for terrorist trials for many months. Anyone, after doing any research on it would agree.
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Lived on Adak for 9 years in the '60's/'70's. Perfect place for prisoners, and they could rebuild the place since it's gone through so many years of abuse/underuse.
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