The End of Torture

This is no time to be soft on terrorismbut President Obama knows what he's doing; It is doubtful that this killer will be released but I still think if he is to close GITMO the detainees need to be transferred to special segregation units inside one of our Federal pens.

Despite their offenses, TORTURE is barbaric and most absolutely is in violation of Geneva guidelines even if the suspects are from countries that did not/do not recognize/support the Geneva Conferene mandates.

It ain't like President Obama is about to let these scum bags walk with impunity.....He's a lot smarter than Y'all give him credit for.

Once he straightens this mess out, all nay-sayers will be kissing his @zz and begging for his forgiveness....

My name is MAJ Sean Lankford, student, Command and General Staff College, U.S. Army Combined Armys Center, Ft. Gordon, GA and any opinion presented is that of the author and not the opinion of the Command and General Staff College or the United States Army.

The Army has long prided itself as being a team based on values. Values are those aspects of our character, individual or group, that are unwaivering and beyond compromise. While I share in the frustration in knowing there are suspects who have information that could save lives, but are unwilling to divulge it, I think there are lines we should not cross. I applaud President Obama on a personal level for standing up for his values. It does make things easier to degrade to any tactic necessary to obtain information to defeat our enemy in GWOT. However, the ends to not justify the means. America aspires to set an example to the world of being the good guy -- well being good isn't easy, it is just right.

The decision by President Obama and his inexperienced staff to ignore the advice of our country's most experienced intelligence and national security advisors is a grave mistake. This partisan decision sacrifices the security of the US in order to appease human rights groups and far-left critics of American policy developed under the Bush administration. For six years, Bush's policies regarding terrorist internment and interrogation have kept this country safe from lunatics who seek to destroy us and our way of life. Our rookie President, with his large ego and liberal mandate, has just shown the terrorist world that he will cave to public pressure in the face of making a tough decision. Back to the good old days of Carter and Clinton all over again. Terrorists and extremists the world over can sleep more soundly now that Obama has taken the reigns. For the rest of us Americans, the threat alert has just been raised to Orange.

hawkeye77 how excactly did the PA make you or anyone else any safer? You people are crying wolf. You are just a bunch of bigots who are going to find any excuse to dis anything that Obama does to bring respect back to America. Why don't you just roll up into a ball and sit in a corner and cry for your buddy Bush to come back?

LORD HELP US! Does this guy have any idea what he is doing? I already miss President Bush. He is a man that we could trust! Obama is just plain SCAREY!

You mean like the [Uni-Bomber] Ted Kaczynski...

Like [Tim McVeigh] The Oklahoma City Bomber..

Like The [Y2K Killer]

Like The Crazy Korean Mass Murderer, who Committed the [Ga Tech Killings] last Year.

Like The 2 Teenage NUTS the [Columbine Killers] a Few Years ago in Colorado.

Like The KKK, The Nazi Party and Aryan Domestic Terrorist, living Here in America and their Long Reign of Terror in America and Blowing Up and Burning Down Black Americans Homes and Churches, Hangings and Burnings and Killings ?

Like The Old [Citizens Council]

We have Much More Domestic Terrorism than we could Ever have International Terrorism.

The Sad thing about it all, is that, Domestic Terrorism is the Most Likely to happen than International Terrorism.

George W. Bush had Much More Domestic Terrorism than he had International Terrorism.

George Bush has Lost More American Lives with his Brand Of [Justice] than the AMERICAN LIVES LOST ON [911]


In Iraq Alone we Lost [Over 4000 AMERICAN LIVES]

The Iraq War COST Thousands of Honorable Americans LIMBS....

Blown OFF LIMBS & FORCED AMPUTATIONS.....

Hundreds of Honorable Americans have Committed SUICIDE.

Over 5,000 Honorable Americans have been Killed Combining BOTH WARS.

Over 1 Million Iraqi's that had NOTHING to Do with [911] have been KILLED, that includes, Babies, Small Children, Women, Teenagers, The Elderly, Men and Boys , under [FALSE PRETENSES]

[Weapons Of Mass Destruction]

We OWE [Communist-Socialist China] Almost 1 Trillion Dollars and with Interest, because they FINANCE Our 2 Wars, with a ....

STEEP PRICE.!!

Adding MORE to our Economic WOES.

So Cheer the Tough Talking and Tough Walking George W. Bush and Dick Cheney from Wyoming....

Big Note: Bush & Cheney, were working for the Bankers, The Oil Corporations, Special Interest Groups of Various Kinds, Their Own Interest [Haliburton] and Not Yours Or My Interest...

Reality Is A B!TCH...

Aint it Son

If torture works, how come they didn't catch Bin Ladin?

What a laugh this all is. The only clean break in policy is one of politics. Bush was a terrible politician because he did what he said and his administration could not keep a secret. Obama has not closed CIA prisons or Gitmo. He showed what a great politician he is by signing orders that dont take effect for some distant time down the road and include almost automatic ways to avoid carrying through with the order. He gets political credit for sticking to a campaign promise from hack like Isikoff.Once he hub bub dies down he never has to actually close the prisons. His administration I suspect, with Rahm as the enforcer, will be able to keep it under their hat that they are still using the same prisons and interrogation techniques. After all we have had secret prisons on foreign soil since the end of WWII, we have been intercepting foreign communications since the revolutionary war and we have used waterboarding for over 100 years. I dont think Obama is really going to change the reality but is doing a good job of changing the preception. And that is a good thing.

I don't understand why people keep saying that 99% of the people in Guantanamo Bay are terrorists, or have killed or will kill Americans, etc. A Bush source stated in their defense of keeping the Bay open that up to 10% of the people who are released go on to become involved in a terrorist network. 10%. Which means 90% of the people released go back to their homes and wonder why they were detained in the first place. People have the right not to like the US. Hell, people have the right to HATE the US. They don't have the right to blow us up and kill us, but we should not be detaining people because they don't like us and are vocal about it. If people want to jump around in the streets overseas and burn pictures of our president and the American flag, whatever. It doesn't bother me any, because as long as that's all they do I could care less. And yes, there's a difference between saying "Down with the US!" and "Let's go fly planes into buildings!" I'm proud of my country and I don't feel the need to try and ram my proudness down other people's throats. All the comments on how our President should be blown up and his daughters killed because he did something you disgaree with, and you have the audacity to say that somehow you're better than the guy living in a cave somewhere demanding that American civilians be blown up? Seriously??? And as far as the "there hasn't been any attacks since 9/11 because of Bush", there weren't any attacks like that BEFORE 9/11.

Our Country is a great experiment in liberty-- and our Country began with the almost unprecedented rejection of cruel and unusual punishment.
Who can doubt that torture is cruel and unusual? And who thinks that they-- or our President-- have the right to turn any American into a torturer to keep themselves "safe?"

For those who do believe that they-- and our President-- --have the right to throw out our great heritage as a Nation that does NOT torture and order another American to become a torturer, I leave you with Benjamin Franklin's words "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Mr. Franklin also said that he and our other founding fathers had created "A Republic-- if you can keep it."

When I served as a Marine I carried the creed of Honor, Courage, and Commitment whenever I lead marines into battle. When we saw men tortured by the enemy we always took pride that we were civilized and honorable; we followed the code of conduct and never tortured any prisoners. I get pissed every time a weekend warrior in Bush and draft dodger in Cheney dishonored our country by implementing torture. Our country has never supported torture prior to them. I would rather have something bad happen than loose our honor and step down to the level of terrorists; if we do we are the same as them and they have already won.

Obama has to be saluted for his principled position. Just like UK we need to treat criminals as such and quit treating them as combatants or soldiers, and frankly war on terrorism was framed purely for political gain by an inept Bush adminstration. The hardcore terrorist will be incacretated indefinetly and others that are innocent will have their day in court, as any civilized nation should do. The only benefit of the Gitmo has been for Al Qaida as recruiting tool.