If Guantánamo Closes, use ADAK!

I 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.

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Department of Justice, Gitmo, jihadist
Posted Mar 11th 2010 at 5:33 am in Defense, Justice/Legal, News, Obama | 8763891 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/kblackwell/2010/03/11/if-guantanamo-closes-use-adak/If+Guant%C3%A1namo+Closes%2C+use+ADAK%212010-03-11+13%3A33%3A24Ken+Blackwell

Exclusive: Pentagon Lawyers Push Back Against Holder’s GITMO Attorneys

Some Defense Department lawyers are worried. Actually, quite a few of them are. They see a train wreck coming with the Obama administration’s evolving Guantanamo Bay detainee policies. Since it is DOD lawyers tasked with much of the footwork for administration decisions, they see firsthand how disorganized, inept, and ideologically extreme the handling of the issue has been. The DOJ, now thoroughly politicized and partisan under Eric Holder, is lock step with Obama’s White House on the issue, and is thoroughly at odds with its legal counterparts in the DOD. At a time when former Guantanamo Bay detainees are battling US forces in Afghanistan, and Jihadists are resurgent worldwide, the country can ill afford the administration’s criminalizing of admitted terrorists or of enemy combatants captured in battle against US forces.

What DOD lawyers are worried about are second-order effects. Namely, the unanticipated consequences of decisions made without due consideration or examination of facts. They are deeply concerned that the administration’s political appointees making decisions on the issue are as likely to be chosen for ideological purity as they are for their acumen on applicable laws. The political appointees are perceived by many in the DOD as caring more for their political ideological creed than for the safety of US citizens, or for the responsible stewardship of tax dollars. It is Leftist canon that Guantanamo Bay be closed, the risks and consequences be damned. Every policy decision pursuing that goal equates to thousands of man hours for DOD lawyers and millions of dollars.

DOD attorneys, including prosecutors and defense attorneys of all political stripes, are of the opinion that closing Guantanamo Bay is an illogical and irresponsible political move made without the facts, and one that will cost billions. No stateside facility has the resources Guantanamo Bay does. As for which stateside facility should replace Guantanamo, the administration cannot make up its mind. As Obama’s minions position for optimum political influence, they have flitted from military sites in Leavenworth, Kansas and Charleston AFB, South Carolina, to civilian facilities in Standish, Michigan and Thomson, Illinois.

The MSM has been telling Americans less that the truth on the detainee issue. Americans have not been told how well thought out was the construction of Guantanamo Bay. Its courtroom was designed by the William and Mary Law School – it is state of the art, capable of handling testimony involving top secret evidence. It has a media center. As for the detainees, forget the horror stories that represent the disinformation tactics of terrorist sympathizers who aim to sway public opinion. Detainees receive the best in medical and dental care. They have daily access to soccer fields. They have exercise areas that overlook the Caribbean, books and movies, as well as a menu where they can choose from several entrée’s cooked to Islamic Halal standards.

They are not tortured and they never were.

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: detainees, eric-holder, Gitmo, Guantanamo Bay, jihadists
Posted Mar 8th 2010 at 5:28 am in Defense, Featured Story, Justice/Legal, Obama, Politics | 8564273 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/capitolconfidential/2010/03/08/exclusive-pentagon-lawyers-push-back-against-holders-gitmo-attorneys/Exclusive%3A+Pentagon+Lawyers+Push+Back+Against+Holder%27s+GITMO+Attorneys2010-03-08+13%3A28%3A57Capitol++Confidential

America Betrayed President Bush

It’s almost hard to believe but Wednesday, January 20 marks exactly one year since President Bush left the White House.

During his last public ceremony as commander in chief, he was booed by thousands of Americans who simutaneously cheered for Barack Obama as he was sworn into office on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.

Except for a June 17 speech in Erie, Pennsylvania in which Bush defended his policies and criticized Obama’s, the former president has been remarkably silent about his successor. He has not fired back at Obama despite the new administration inappropriately blaming Bush for all of their failures.

One year after taking office however, Obama has done a total reversal on his isolationist, non-interventionist foreign policy, and is now pushing President Bush’s neo-conservative philosophy as a justification for starting a new war in Afghanistan. What the Democratic Party once criticized as an over-simplified good vs. evil argument has become the cornerstone of Obama’s reasoning.

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: 911 attacks, Afghan War, Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, Barack Obama
Posted Jan 20th 2010 at 10:30 am in Defense, Open Threads, Politics | 62902291 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jsshapiro/2010/01/20/america-betrayed-president-bush/America+Betrayed+President+Bush2010-01-20+18%3A30%3A01Jeffrey+Scott+Shapiro

The Toothless Visas Viper

After a series of successful and unsuccessful jihad attacks across this great nation, on Christmas day the crotch bomber struck, attempting to explode a bomb hidden in his underwear while landing in Detroit on Northwest Flight 253. And so after months of ignoring the jihad against America and pretending that nothing was happening, Barack Obama sprang into action — with useless, toothless reform.

In the wake of the Christmas Day bomber’s attempted attack, the US Visas Viper terrorist reporting program criteria have been broadened.

The Visas Viper program is used by the Department of State and other national agencies to place on “watch lists” known or suspected international terrorists in unclassified and classified government look out systems such as CLASS (Consular Lookout and Support Systems).

So it’s a good thing that Obama is broadening the criteria for reporting terrorists in this program, isn’t it? Actually, no. Make no mistake: it is not going to help whatsoever. Obama’s “tough” new criteria don’t let us filter out potential terrorists using minimal profiling criteria.

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Barack Obama, Christmas terror attack, Detroit terror attack, Gitmo, global warming
Posted Jan 15th 2010 at 9:34 am in Defense, Obama | 6021445 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/pgeller/2010/01/15/the-toothless-visas-viper/The+Toothless+Visas+Viper++2010-01-15+17%3A34%3A20Pamela+Geller

How I Spent My Hawaiian Vacation

By Barack Obama

It certainly was a holiday to remember.  Since I’m President of the United States, I was able to choose anywhere in the world to spend a long, lazy couple of weeks.  So, we got the 747 gassed up to head to Hawaii for the Holidays.  When I learned Health Care Reform might be held up in the Senate on Christmas Eve, many felt nervous that the holiday kickoff would hit a snafu.  Sure, it’s one of the most complicated and controversial bills in American history, but we had turkeys to baste and chestnuts to roast.

Great news, we cooked up a plan to slap a 10 percent tax on people who go to tanning beds — that ought to fix paying for all this!   Plus, Senator Harry Reid ensured the democrats who were going to bail on the bill were handsomely paid off, so we quickly squeaked out a win on that sucker before anyone had a chance to read it!  The partisan divide may now be bigger than ever, but I made it out of D.C. on time to head for some quality climate change —  to the land where palm trees sway for some holiday island fun — Mele Kalikimaka!

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Abdulmutallab, Barack Obama, Christmas Bombing, Christmas Vacation, Gitmo
Posted Jan 10th 2010 at 8:23 am in Healthcare, Obama, Political Humor, Politics | 57826168 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jmeath/2010/01/10/how-i-spent-my-hawaiian-vacation/How+I+Spent+My+Hawaiian+Vacation2010-01-10+16%3A23%3A49Jason+Killian+Meath

A Path to Jihad: From Gitmo, To Saudi Arabia, To IRAN, To Yemen

Americans fancy the idea that while we might have been asleep prior to 9/11/2001, now our eyes are wide open and we are on alert. This is a pipe dream.

If people’s eyes were truly open, they would be closely examining the path Gitmo detainee Said Ali al-Shihri took to Yemen, where we are now learning he helped plan the Christmas Jihad.

Said reportedly left Gitmo, went through “rehabilitation” in Saudi Arabia, then moved to Iran before ending up as a leader of al-Qaeda in Yemen.

For example, Said Ali al-Shihri left Gitmo in 2007 and became a patient in Saudi Arabia’s terrorist rehabilitation program. Upon graduation, he went to Iran, and then became the deputy leader of Al-Qaeda in Yemen. Abdullah al-Qarawi following a similar path, also traveling to Iran after finishing the program, where he know oversees over 100 Saudi Al-Qaeda operatives. Mohammed al-Oufi, a former Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula commander, also was released from Gitmo. Luckily, he defected later and informed the Saudis about Iran’s secret involvement with Al-Qaeda in Yemen and a plot to bomb the Saudi oil infrastructure. [READ MORE...]

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: 9-11 attacks, Al Qaeda, Camp Gitmo, Christmas terror attack, Gitmo
Posted Dec 31st 2009 at 6:47 am in Culture, Defense, News | 5373098 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/amarcus/2009/12/31/a-path-to-jihad-from-gitmo-to-saudi-arabia-to-iran-to-yemen/A+Path+to+Jihad%3A+From+Gitmo%2C+To+Saudi+Arabia%2C+To+IRAN%2C+To+Yemen2009-12-31+14%3A47%3A04Andrew++Marcus

Obama’s 6 Worst Policy Decisions

From Guantanamo to Health Care, Obama is certainly seeking to Change America – or more accurately -to accelerate the pace of change from a private enterprise-freedom based civilization to a Big Government-run society.  According to Thomas Paine, “It is the duty of a patriot to protect his country from his government.”  I realize that is a slightly different definition than Joe Biden would use, but nevertheless, in that light, here is my listing of the worst of his policy decisions:

6. Bailing Out GM.  “His policy of public investments prevented necessary liquidations.  The businesses he hoped thus to save either went bankrupt in the end, after fearful agonies, or were burdened . . . by a crushing load of debt.  [He] undermined property rights . . .pushed federal credit into the banks and bullied them into inflating . . .” Historian Paul Johnson wrote that of Herbert Hoover.  You can almost substitute Obama’s name for Hoover’s  in every detail.   By the way, Government Motors sales are declining at 3 times the rate of the industry as a whole.  Hoover would be proud.

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: auto bailout, Barack Obama, cap-and-trade, federal spending, Gitmo
Posted Dec 28th 2009 at 12:02 pm in Defense, Economics, Environment, Healthcare, News, Obama, Politics, federal spending | 52906393 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/tdelbeccaro/2009/12/28/obamas-6-worst-policy-decisions/Obama%E2%80%99s+6+Worst+Policy+Decisions2009-12-28+20%3A02%3A52Thomas+Del+Beccaro

Changing GITMO’s Address, Doesn’t Change Terrorists Motives

The same people who have brought you 10 percent unemployment, government run health care and a national energy tax are now attempting to bequeath you with another unwanted holiday gift.  This time, however, the stakes are even higher as they want to bring terrorists to US soil.

The White House has just announced their plan to transfer Guantanamo Bay detainees to Thomson Correctional Center in Illinois.  From my briefings at GITMO and speaking with people who know the situation well, I can say that moving GITMO terrorists to Thomson, is a huge unnecessary gamble.

Those terrorists still remaining in GITMO are among the world’s most dangerous warriors. They are wickedly creative in thinking out of the box when contemplating doing us harm, as evidenced by the attacks of September 11, 2001.  They command the loyalty of thousands of fellow jihadists around the world and have complete control over the minds of followers, both in detention and on the outside.  On a whim, they can—and have—ordered those under their command to commit suicide at a moment’s notice.

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Camp Gitmo, federal prison, Gitmo, Guantanamo Bay, Jennifer Granholm
Posted Dec 15th 2009 at 3:03 pm in Defense, Obama, Politics | 47002109 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/aschock/2009/12/15/changing-gitmos-address-doesnt-change-terrorists-motives/Changing+GITMO%E2%80%99s+Address%2C+Doesn%E2%80%99t+Change+Terrorists+Motives2009-12-15+23%3A03%3A55Rep.+Aaron+Schock+%28R-IL%29

How Will Importing Dangerous Terrorists Make America Safer?

Today the Obama Administration is announcing it plans to import the terrorists held at the Guantanamo Bay prison – some of the most dangerous terrorists in the world – to the Thomson Correctional Center located outside Chicago, Illinois.  This decision puts the interests of liberal special interest groups before the safety and security of the American people.  Here’s how I addressed this issue at a press conference on Capitol Hill this morning:

The American people don’t want dangerous terrorists imported on to U.S. soil, and time after time the House and Senate have reaffirmed this position with bipartisan votes rejecting the Administration’s plan. Yet this Administration is defying the will of the American people and importing them anyway. What’s worse, this decision is completely unnecessary considering that these terrorists were already being tried by military commissions, which were specifically designed under the law to prosecute such heinous acts.

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Gitmo, Guantanamo Bay, Guantanamo Bay detainees, Thomson Correctional Center
Posted Dec 15th 2009 at 9:20 am in Congress, Defense | 4681063 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jboehner/2009/12/15/how-will-importing-dangerous-terrorists-make-america-safer/How+Will+Importing+Dangerous+Terrorists+Make+America+Safer%3F2009-12-15+17%3A20%3A13Rep.+John+Boehner

Obama Will Live to Regret Sending Gitmo Detainees to Illinois

Who would have believed after 9/11 that our own president, the commander-in-chief who recently announced that he was sending another 30,000 troops to risk their lives in Afghanistan, would order that enemy combatants captured on the battlefield must be brought into the United States.  We will live to regret this.

Barack Obama continues to cast the closing of Guantanamo and the importation of Al Qaeda terrorists into the American heartland as a moral victory.  But this is nothing more than moral vanity and rank political theater aimed at satisfying his liberal soul-mates at the ACLU and Human Rights First.  In truth, the security nightmare he is about to visit on this country will only be surpassed by the legal morass that will accompany the transfer of foreign terrorists to American soil.   The moment the detainees arrive, their lawyers will drop an avalanche of legal challenges on the federal courts seeking to set them free, destroy what is left of the military commissions, and turn the 9/11 trial into a tragic farce.  Americans should remember this:  it doesn’t have to happen.   The Supreme Court has said that Gitmo is lawful and that preventative detentions are constitutional.  Barack Obama–and members of Congress who stand by and do nothing to stop him–will own this national security disaster.

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: 9/11 trial, ACLU, Al Qaeda, Gitmo, Human Rights First
Posted Dec 11th 2009 at 7:54 pm in Defense, Justice/Legal, Obama, Politics | 45054100 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/dburlingame/2009/12/11/obama-will-live-to-regret-sending-gitmo-detainees-to-illinois/Obama+Will+Live+to+Regret+Sending+Gitmo+Detainees+to+Illinois2009-12-12+03%3A54%3A00Debra+Burlingame

De-Fund Holder’s Manhattan Transfer

Ex-White House counsel Greg Craig thought it was a good idea to transfer Elián Gonzalez from the arms of his loving family in Miami into the arms of Fidel Castro. Transfer Elián from Florida to Cuba. Bad idea. Attorney General Janet Reno thought she might have to prove her toughness by transferring dozens of women and children from a Waco cult headquarters to eternity. Really bad idea.

But Eric Holder’s plan to transfer Khalid Sheikh Mohammed from Guantánamo Bay to Manhattan for a civilian trial is perhaps liberals’ worst idea in years. KSM and his cohorts had agreed to plead guilty before a military tribunal, accept a sentence of death, and speedily rendezvous with their 72 ladies-in-waiting.

This offer of an efficient way out for the administration was not good enough for Attorney General Eric Holder. He insists on trying the terrorists before a civilian jury in federal court, just a few hundred yards from Ground Zero. Next to martyrdom and a free trip to paradise, this has to be the terrorists’ wildest dream.

No turbaned genie ever appeared out of Aladdin’s lamp to grant three greater wishes than these. KSM to Genie: One, I want to exploit my status as mass-murdering terrorist; Two, I want to inflict even greater pain and suffering on the families of those thousands whom I’ve murdered; Three, I want to make my trial a magnet for my brother jihadists throughout the world.

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Barack Obama, Branch Dividians, Dred Scott, Elian Gonzales, eric-holder
Posted Dec 1st 2009 at 10:37 am in Justice/Legal, News, Obama, Politics, Uncategorized | 3873853 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/kenandken/2009/12/01/de-fund-holders-manhattan-transfer/De-Fund+Holder%27s+Manhattan+Transfer2009-12-01+17%3A37%3A20Ken+Blackwell+and++Ken+Klukowski

Time to Pass The Buck and Start Pointing Fingers: Obama Living Up to His Absentee Legislator Past

During the Presidential “Media Fest” Campaign of 2007/08, many tried to impress upon the American people that Obama was an empty suit.  Quite simply, he had no significant legislative achievement to call his own.  Heck, as an Illinois State Senator, Obama voted “present” nearly 130 times, according to the New York Times:  “effectively sidestepping” issues.  The point of those who pressed Obama’s lack of executive experience and sidestepping tactics was that we could not afford a President who would do the same.

Ten months into the Obama Presidency, it is pretty clear that Obama is living up to his Absentee Legislator past.  Painful examples abound:

1. Trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Criminal Court.  Arguably one of the most detrimental legal and foreign policy decisions of our time, and Obama openly admits it wasn’t his call – it was an underling’s call – Eric Holder.  It was a terrible decision and, as Senator Lindsey Graham pointed out, an unprecedented decision.  While I doubt Obama sat purely on the sidelines on this decision, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that someone other than Obama has to take responsibility for this decision – good or bad.  And when it goes bad, then Obama will simply dump Holder.  Problem solved.
2. Health Care.  What’s a President to do when he is devoid of any significant legislation to his name?  Allow the most significant piece of legislation in the last 40 years to be written and managed by others.  Literally.   Before us is the biggest makeover of the relationship of the private sector and government since the Great Depression and Obama is merely a passenger on a bus being driven by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.  When it fails the American people, and it will, Obama will rightfully claim it wasn’t his bill.  Such is the prerogative of an Absentee President.
3. The Stimulus Bill.  It’s failing.  Indeed, over 3 million jobs have been lost since the Stimulus Bill was passed – a bill laden with pork because its passage was driven by someone other than Obama (not to say he would have passed a trimmed down bill).  Beyond that, we find out that the AIG bailout money was misspent – who would have thought?  Since the President can’t be in charge of such failures, and Obama can’t blame Pelosi or Reid,  the fall guy will be Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner – because, in time, simply blaming President Bush won’t be effective anymore.
4. The November Elections.  Even though Obama went and put his personal prestige on the line for New Jersey Governor Corzine, Corzine was soundly beat – as was the Democrat candidate in Virginia – a race Obama wouldn’t touch.  But those results, according to Obama, had nothing to do with him – those were races with local implications not national influences.

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: AIG bailout, Barack Obama, bush tax cuts, campaign 2008, civilian terror trials
Posted Nov 29th 2009 at 10:03 am in Congress, News, Obama, Politics | 34338162 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/tdelbeccaro/2009/11/29/time-to-pass-the-buck-and-start-pointing-fingers-obama-living-up-to-his-absentee-legislator-past/Time+to+Pass+The+Buck+and+Start+Pointing+Fingers%3A+Obama+Living+Up+to+His+Absentee+Legislator+Past+2009-11-29+17%3A03%3A53Thomas+Del+Beccaro

Another Obama Gitmo Official Resigns: Who is Accountable Now?

Earlier this month President Obama fired Greg Craig, his main counsel on matters concerning the Guantanamo Bay Facility. And this week Obama sheds another one of his GITMO team with the resignation of Deputy Assistant Secretary for Defense for Detainee Policy, Phillip Carter.

It appears that Obama’s GITMO team is being systematically eliminated. One has to ask, why? The only real answer has to be that Obama is setting up some plausible deniability by firing or forcing the resignation of officials involved with GITMO policy. Once enough of these people are gone, Obama can look wide-eyed to the public and claim that he was badly served by his GITMO advisers and, therefore, it isn’t his fault.

Unfortunately for Obama the failure is not with the staff but with the chief himself, Obama.

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Attorney General, civilian terror trials, detainee policy, eric-holder, Gitmo
Posted Nov 28th 2009 at 12:33 pm in Defense, Justice/Legal, Obama | 3760665 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/wthuston/2009/11/28/another-obama-gitmo-official-resigns-who-is-accountable-now/Another+Obama+Gitmo+Official+Resigns%3A+Who+is+Accountable+Now%3F2009-11-28+19%3A33%3A53Warner+Todd++Huston

Hosting Terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: The New Growth Industry

Lawmakers in New York and Illinois were quick to recognize that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s trial offered a new opportunity to secure billions of additional taxpayer funds.

Both states are reeling from the combined effect of economic slowdown and years of profligate spending on government, grown far beyond what the tax base will support.   Thanks to President Obama’s decision to transfer terrorists from GITMO to U.S. soil, both states, and the city of New York, are going to be paid almost $3 billion dollars to secure, transport, administer, house, and contend with the requirements associated with having these terrorists in the United States.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), the four other terrorists and all Americans associated with the trial, will require rigorous, differentiated security measures: twenty-four hour a day surveillance, transportation, housing and judicial security.  Certainly, New York will be required to raise its threat level to better prepare and respond to the new threat of  sympathetic  jihadists using the trial, as a showpiece of their own, to make a violent, retaliatory public statement.

Federal security and law enforcement agencies, such as DHS, FBI and US Marshals  will be working round the clock to provide the appropriate security, but will be unable to do all of the work required. New York, state and city, law enforcement officers will be required to share the burden, and will expect compensation from the federal government to provide this level of support.  Heavily-unionized, public employees in both states, are about to receive the most coveted of all Labor Union prizes, unlimited overtime that extends for years.

Bringing KSM to trial will be hugely expensive and will essentially represent a federalization of much of the New York state and city law enforcement and public services for the 5+ years that the trial process is likely to run.

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Attorney General, Barack Obama, Blagojevich, Chuck Schumer, DHS
Posted Nov 23rd 2009 at 12:57 pm in Big Labor, Congress, Justice/Legal, Obama, State Politics | 35110142 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/ldoan/2009/11/23/hosting-terrorist-khalid-sheikh-mohammed-the-new-growth-industry/Hosting+Terrorist+Khalid+Sheikh+Mohammed%3A+The+New+Growth+Industry2009-11-23+19%3A57%3A12Lurita+Doan

Detainees to Illinois: Can Obama’s Home State Sink Even Lower?

Illinois can be extra proud of its Democratic elected officials these days as they have joined to create a perfect storm of stupidity resulting in the possibility that terrorist detainees may be transferred to an unopened new prison in the rural northwestern corner of the Prairie State.

Favorite son Barack Obama has so muddled his administration policy on terror detainees that we are left with an approach that nearly everyone eight years ago agreed was to be avoided.  That is, incarcerating terrorists on American soil.

An issue like this is always bound to elicit histrionics from both sides of the partisan divide—and no one has disappointed.  This new policy won’t lead to mass escapes of terrorists who will roam the heartland bombing at will.  Jihadist camps won’t spring up along the Mississippi River and Al Qaida is not likely to launch an assault on a rural Illinois prison.  But neither is this a simple economic development project that will create jobs and boom times for rural Illinois.  It is not an inconsequential relocation away from the politically charged Gitmo to a morally superior prison that  will win favorable international opinion.

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: ACLU, al qaida, defense department prison, democrat machine, Dick Durbin
Posted Nov 20th 2009 at 10:57 am in Defense, Justice/Legal, Obama, Politics | 3401032 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/dobrien/2009/11/20/detainees-to-illinois-can-obamas-home-state-sink-even-lower/Detainees+to+Illinois%3A+Can+Obama%27s+Home+State+Sink+Even+Lower%3F2009-11-20+17%3A57%3A39Doug+O%26%2339%3BBrien

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: Terror Trials in the Big Apple

It is a Friday and President Obama is abroad.  What better time for the President and the Department of Justice to announce that 9/11 coordinator Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and some of his fellow terrorists will be tried in a civilian court in New York City?

Yesterday, I wrote about the curious connection that major Obama and ACORN supporter Bruce Ratner has to the Department of Justice – the very department that refuses to initiate a criminal trial of ACORN. It just so happens that Bruce Ratner’s brother, Michael Ratner, shares the terrorist coddling sympathies of Attorney General Eric Holder.  As Michelle Malkin documents, Holder not only pushed for the pardoning of actual terrorists in his last stint at DOJ, but he was also a senior partner at a law firm representing detainees at Guantanamo. While Michael Ratner has not represented Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, he did represent a handful of terrorists and won them the right to challenge their detention in U.S. courts under habeas corpus. This is just one of many legal “victories” that have paved the way for folks like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to be tried in civilian court on our soil.

This particular example highlights the underlying notion that terrorists should be privy to the same rights as United States citizens. In this instance, President Obama did in fact exercise his discretion (if you can call it that) by allowing the trial to take place in civilian court.  Attorney Brian Levi serves as the Director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University.  As Levi noted today, “As a legal matter President Obama could very well also have tried these five detainees before military tribunals, as five others are…”

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: 9-11 attacks, ACORN, Bruce Ratner, eminent domain abuse, eric-holder
Posted Nov 13th 2009 at 3:37 pm in Culture, Defense, Featured Story, Justice/Legal, Obama, Politics | 30678193 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/johara/2009/11/13/khalid-sheikh-mohammed-terror-trials-in-the-big-apple/Khalid+Sheikh+Mohammed%3A+Terror+Trials+in+the+Big+Apple2009-11-13+22%3A37%3A03John+M.+O%26%2339%3BHara