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The White House announced Friday that President Biden hopes to shut down the prison at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, a tall task that the Obama administration failed to do nearly a decade ago.
"We are undertaking an NSC process to assess the current state of play that the Biden administration has inherited from the previous administration, in line with our broader goal of closing Guantanamo," she said. "There will be a robust interagency process to move forward on this, but we need to have the right people seated to do this important work."
Former President Barack Obama said the detention center went against American values and was a "stain on our broader record" when he argued for the prison's closure in 2016, NPR reported.
Later that same year, then-President-elect Donald Trump vowed to keep the installation open.
"We're gonna load it up with some bad dudes, believe me," Trump said in 2016.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday June 09 2021, @08:26PM (10 children)
So you are willing to go on record and say that Trump was wrong to keep GITMO open?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday June 09 2021, @08:35PM (9 children)
I am on record, opposing the existence of Gitmo, even before it was officially opened. That has not changed in 20 years. WTF would Obama, Trump, or Biden change my opinion of an obviously wrong policy?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday June 09 2021, @08:57PM (8 children)
Well good, apparently we agree about something.
What would be nice is if you complained about Trump actively expanding the practice [humanrightsfirst.org] as much as you do about Biden not ending it quickly enough.
Even GW himself wanted it shut down:
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday June 09 2021, @09:13PM (5 children)
Laughably, Bush wants to close it down for the wrong reasons. He can't admit that it was simply WRONG from the word go.
Trump? That was just more foolish shit from the reality show guy. You notice that it wasn't expanded, and his "bad dudes" never arrived.
Obama? Excuses. He made a showing, and said the right words for the media. Now, in his third term, maybe he'll actually have his puppet shut the place down?
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 10 2021, @01:19AM (2 children)
Daaaaamn you make rocks look smart.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday June 10 2021, @01:21AM (1 child)
You were the one laying in the yard, talking to the rocks and sharing your beer with them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 10 2021, @05:49AM
Wow you spying on me bro? Mad I didn't share muh beer with you?
Thank you sir, your display of partisan outrage really cements how there is no point working with conservatives since their viewpoints change so drastically with who is currently saying whatever.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Aegis on Thursday June 10 2021, @01:34AM (1 child)
Obama removed 80% of the prisoners from Guantanimo.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday June 10 2021, @01:51AM
True, he got rid of some of those prisoners. He didn't shut it down, and it is still an embarrassment to civilized people everywhere.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Thursday June 10 2021, @12:46PM (1 child)
Should we be looking to your meager level of complaining for the standard? And apparently, Trump "actively expanding the practice" hasn't led to a change [reuters.com] in the size of Guantanamo's prison population (which apparently went from 41 prisoners at the start of Trump's tenure to 40 prisoners at the end).
I think most of us agree that Guantanamo shouldn't have existed in the first place. But shouldn't we place a higher priority on finally shutting the place down than in blaming others for not caring enough about small aspects of the problem?
My take is that I'm willing to give Biden credit for finally doing what's right when three previous presidents couldn't - assuming he actually does it. And I'm not particularly interested in the level of complaining or hypocrisy people have done in the past, especially when it's only for certain people and not everyone.
(Score: 3, Touché) by DeathMonkey on Thursday June 10 2021, @03:30PM
I posted a journal about us finally shutting the place down.
If the responses had been "great, let's do it" you might have a point.
Instead we got a bunch of posts blaming others for not doing it fast enough. And these are coming from the same people who support the guy who issued an Executive Order forcing it to stay open and allowing new prisoners.