Evidently, this is a president who cares more about public relations than policy.
Unless Obama is going to release the Gitmo detainees, one can honestly ask why close the facility? If it's an "image" problem, then responding to world public opinion would seem to indicate Obama cares more about the public relations aspect of national security than actual policy.
Gitmo is now the most closely watched prison on the planet. If a detainee complains of an MP looking sideways at them, it ends up on the front page of the New York Times. If one the terrorist's lawyers needs a little publicity, all they have to do is pass on the latest libel about mistreatment there.
The Red Cross and other international agencies have access to conditions there. They have cases working their way through American courts. And the fact of the matter is, no one else wants these prisoners - even so they can release them.
But PR demands that we close Gitmo down and find another place for the prisoners. Evidently, they weill be sent to a number of military bases around the country:
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.
What a stupendously empty gesture. If only he could be so helpful with his economic plan, we wouldn't have anything to worry about - anything he proposed would mean nothing and be for PR purposes only.
No word on whether all Madonna recordings will be confiscated at these bases in order not to offend the rather sensitive musical tastes of the newcomers.
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