Would the closing of Gitmo be of any consequence or just more political theatre?

[Orwellian_Ghost]

Secret List of U.S. Military Bases to Replace Gitmo
Pendleton, Leavenworth, Miramar Included as Possible New Home for 250 Detainees

By BRIAN ROSS and LUIS MARTINEZ
Jan. 16, 2009—


The U.S. military has prepared a list of U.S. military bases that could be used to house as many as 250 detainees currently being held at the U.S. Naval base in Guantanamo Bay, military officials tell ABCNews.com.

The list -- which includes Camp Pendleton in California, Fort Leavenworth in Kansas; the Marine Air Station in Miramar, California; and the U.S. Naval Consolidated Brig in South Carolina -- has been circulated in a classified brief to members of Congress and was prepared by the Pentagon's Joint Staff.

President-elect Barack Obama is expected to order that the Guantanamo Bay detainee facility be closed on his first day in office, officials say. Officials say it would take at least a year to prepare a new prison and transfer the detainees.

<snip>

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=6664947&page=1

Obama Plans Guantanamo Close, US Trials
MATT APUZZO and LARA JAKES JORDAN | November 10, 2008 10:45 PM

WASHINGTON- President-elect Obama's advisers are crafting plans to close the Guantanamo Bay prison and prosecute terrorism suspects in the U.S., a plan the Bush administration said Monday was easier said than done. Under the plan being crafted inside Obama's camp, some detainees would be released and others would be charged in U.S. courts, where they would receive constitutional rights and open trials.

But, underscoring the difficult decisions Obama must make to fulfill his pledge of shutting down Guantanamo, the plan could require the creation of a new legal system to handle the classified information inherent in some of the most sensitive cases.

<snip>

Obama foreign policy adviser Denis McDonough said the president-elect wants Guantanamo closed, but no decision has been made "about how and where to try the detainees, and there is no process in place to make that decision until his national security and legal teams are assembled."

<snip>

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/10/obama-plans-guantanamo-cl_n_142593.html

Department of Defense announces Gitmo detainee transfers
Diane Sweet
Published: Sunday January 18, 2009

President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration is set for just over 48 hours from now, with one of his first acts as President expected to be ordering the closure of the U.S. Guantanamo Bay military prison. After he figures out what to do with the detainees, of course. That is, if there are any detainees remaining in the facility come Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009.

The Department of Defense announced late Saturday the 'transfer' of six detainees, with four going to Iraq, one to Algeria and one to Afghanistan.

The Pentagon release claims that the "detainees were determined to be eligible for departure following a comprehensive series of review processes," and that the "transfer is a demonstration of the United States' desire not to hold detainees any longer than necessary."

It is not stated whether or not the released detainees have been freed, or transferred to other detention facilities.

<snip>

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Department_of_Defense_announces_Gitmo_detainee_0118.html

[mmonk]

1. It's so Orwellian sometimes, my head spin.

I guess this thread will be appropriate for you to post?

[alarimer]

2. Considering that even any trials held in the US will be tainted

It doesn't really matter that much where they transfer the inmates. All trials will be tainted by evidence obtained at GITMO. Surely they will not be able to use it. And any trials held outside our own judicial system will be meaningless anyway.

[mmonk]

3. Talk about a separate legal system or courts bothers me.

If the Democrats create a new one for unequal justice, I will not be able to remain in the party. I need to sleep at night.

[1]

4. he is not closing gitmo. he is moving it. n/t.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

6. That's what it looks like

Seems like we are in for a re-branding of The Empire.

[Solly Mack]

5. K&R

Evidence obtained by torture can't be "cleansed"

Under Bush they used the FBI to go back in and obtain the same evidence obtained through torture without using torture, in order to "cleanse" the evidence...so they could use it against people...

I'm not of the thinking that one can un-poision* an already poisoned tree.