Op-ed:
On Closing Gitmo
By: Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor / Right Side
Patriots on
http://americanpbn.com/
"These detainees cannot come to American soil."
- Speaker of the House Paul Ryan on hearing Obama's plan to close Gitmo
Earlier this week Barack HUSSEIN Obama tried to make good on one of his
long ago campaign promises...a promise to close the Guantanamo Bay
detention facility (Gitmo) before the end of his presidency...which by
the way cannot come soon enough.
And in his reality of wanting to bring convicted terrorists onto U.S.
soil as well as releasing terrorists to terrorist condoning countries
where they will make their way back onto the battlefield and kill more
innocents, Obama had the gall to say that the Gitmo issue had cost him
“countless hours of consternation” as he once again blamed George W.
Bush for all his woes. Saying it was what Bush did that forced him to
apologize on the world stage for an approach to terrorism that he never
supported, Obama tried to convince Congress that by his emptying Gitmo
our country would move past what he called
“a troubled era of wartime
behavior,” and would close a chapter in our history as
"It undermines
our standing in the world. It is viewed as a stain on our broader record
of upholding the highest standards of rule of law."
Presenting what he called a 'blueprint'...actually a 9-page 'so-called' strategy' you can see here:
http://www.defense.gov/Portals/1/Documen...
proved once again that not only are his intentions misplaced, but that
they have crossed over into outright treason. And how so...with actions
that 'aid and abet' the enemy and put the American people in danger.
See a transcript of Obama's remarks in full here:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-off... and see him say those words here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVt9Jb3KYYg
Briefly, this is what Obama...who called the closing of Gitmo a
“bipartisan moral imperative”...is proposing. Now with 91 detainees
still being held at Gitmo, the Parole Review Board, the board
responsible for determining which detainee is suitable for transfer,
will be working to have the 35 detainees who have been cleared for
release to a 'third country' fast-tracked over the next couple of
months; and with another 46 being deemed too dangerous to transfer
overseas coupled with the remaining 10 being charged or convicted in the
military commissions system...Obama wants to bring these worst of the
worst to one of 13 still unnamed high-security prisons inside these
United States...saying it would save as much as $85 million a year by
moving them here.
Better to save dollars than be concerned about the harm these enemy
combatants can do if they ever escaped...par for the course for the man
who himself is an enemy combatant...the enemy within who never explained
why moving said detainees to U.S. soil reduces our standing in the
world.
So maybe now that you know what Obama is planning on doing you can see
that the only stain on Obama's above mentioned rule of law is Obama
himself for this most miserable of presidents plans to bring to our
country those he knows will indeed pose a threat to our populace. In
other words, the man who swore to protect the health, safety, and
welfare of the American people now wants to deliberately put American
lives in danger because it would be too dangerous to send the worst of
the worst to the countries of his brethren...if that's not treason...if
that's not 'aiding and abetting' the enemy...I don't know what is.
“Not only are we not going to close Guantánamo, when I am president, if
we capture a terrorist alive, they are not getting a court hearing in
Manhattan. They are not going to be sent to Nevada...They are going to
Guantánamo, and we are going to find out everything they know.”
-
Presidential candidate Marco Rubio
Treason...yet the fact remains that in this, an extremely contentious
election year where the issue of national security remains the prime
concern for most Americans, hopefully, our Republican-controlled Congress will
not allow the Obama White House the cooperation needed to send detainees
to our soil. In fact, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has said that
any effort by this administration to unilaterally...via his pen and his
phone...close Gitmo without congressional approval would be a direct
violation of U.S. law as Obama does not have the authority under the
Constitution to transfer prisoners on his own.
“[The Congress shall have Power…] To declare War, grant Letters of
Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and
Water,” Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 of the U.S. Constitution, also
known as the War Powers Clause, says it all with the single word
'Congress.' Breaking it down further to the words,
“make rules
concerning captures on land and water,” again shows that said power in
relation to the transfer of any prisoners is invested in the Congress
not in the president. Simply, this means that Obama does not have the
legal right to release these 'captures,' and by the way, nor are they
entitled to any constitutional rights or legal proceedings to try and
prove otherwise. In fact, in a 1952 opinion in the case Youngstown Sheet
& Tube Co. v. Sawyer, Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson
determined that a president is on the 'weakest constitutional footing'
when acting against Congress's will.
Remember, too, that Congress voted overwhelmingly for the 'National
Defense Authorization Act' which contains a provision that clearly
states that the president may not move Gitmo inmates to U.S.
soil...period. In fact, as per the words of speaker Ryan,
“...if the
president proceeds with knowingly breaking the law and asking the
military to break the law, he will be met with fierce bipartisan
opposition here in Congress, and we're taking all legal preparations
necessary to meet with that resistance.”
And rest assured that there will indeed be bipartisan resistance to
Obama's plans as it was the Democrats not the Republicans who wrote the
above said bill and got it passed when they were in control of Congress.
And the Republican-controlled House and Senate will surely reject it as
dangerous to national security at a time when islamic
terrorism is at a worldwide all time high...that is if Congress grows a backbone...and know that there appears to be enough votes to not only
block Obama's plan in Congress, but also enough votes to override any
veto. Also, the GOP is, according to Speaker Ryan,
"preparing our legal
challenge" to ensure that the prison remains open and that the detainees
are not now or ever moved to our homeland.
But that still leaves Obama's infamous 'pen and phone' to executive
order in the closing of Gitmo and the transferring of prisoners, never
mind what Congress or 'We the People' want. And with this being a presidential
election year, Obama will do anything needed for both political
expediency and legacy building, and once again the Constitution be
damned.
Now the question is does Obama via his commander-and-chief powers have
unilateral authority to close Gitmo on his own? According to professor
of political science at SUNY Cortland, Robert J. Spitzer, in referring
to congressional funding restrictions aimed at preventing Guantanamo
detainees from being transferred to the U.S....legislation that was
signed by Obama...
"The answer is no, as long as Congress has acted
affirmatively to prevent him from doing that, as it has in this case."
But with Obama thinking himself king, he could very well try to close
Gitmo via an executive order which would force this matter into federal
court. And so the man who thinks he can just circumnavigate laws he
finds inconvenient...the man who thinks himself above the very rule of
law...above the Constitution...now finds himself facing the end of his
tenure without the closing of Gitmo to add to his legacy...and hopefully
it will stay that way.
********************************************
Today, Saturday, February 27th, from 11am to 1pm EST,
Right Side Patriots Craig Andresen and
Diane Sori discuss Why Trump?, Closing Gitmo, and give their take on the
winners and losers from Thursday's Republican presidential debate.
Tune in at:
americanpbn.com
And chat with us live at:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/cprworldwidemedia/?fref=ts
1) Trump has favorability ratings that make him unelectable:
The American public is very familiar with Donald Trump and people hate
his guts. Trump’s current favorable/unfavorable rating is 34/58. Just as a point of comparison, the two biggest landslides in history were against Jimmy Carter (33/58) and Walter Mondale (34/40). Trump is so unpopular with the general electorate that we might as well be running Jared Fogle or Bill Cosby.
