Murtha and Moran Working to Shut Down Gitmo

By: Lowell
Published On: 2/9/2007 7:19:01 PM

According to the Marine Corps Times, Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) and his colleague/friend Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) are working hard to shut down the Guantanamo Bay detention facility (aka, Gitmo).  According to the Marine Corps Times, the plan is to close Gitmo "by the end of 2008, with the exception of several dozen detainees in the war on terrorism who would be kept at the facility and tried there."  The Times article also reports:

Without public notice, Murtha dispatched Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., to the detention center at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay on a one-day trip late last month to recommend ways for closing it. Both men said the prison has become counterproductive as the U.S. tries to win converts overseas in the war on terrorism.

"Without closing it, this just plays into the propaganda of the enemy," Moran said in an interview.

Jim Moran is 100% correct on this; I hope he and Jack Murtha succeed in what they're trying to do here.  And while they're at it, they should also do what they can to shut down Abu Ghraib and bulldoze the place into oblivion.  Oh, and can you guys stop the "surge" while you're at it?  Thanks! :) 

By the way, I hear that the legislative vehicle for shutting down Gitmo will be the FY 2008 Defense Appropriations bill, because the Supplemental does not fund operations at Gitmo. For that reason, the Supplemental is not sufficient to effect the needed change.

Comments



A Public Bulldozing . . . (PM - 2/9/2007 8:09:49 PM)
will help start repairing our image to the entire world.  Not just Muslim countries, but the entire world.

I trust some of you have seen the polling report from Arab countries that put Bush into the top spot as most hated.  We all know what Europe thinks of him.



Fantastic post, Lowell (Catzmaw - 2/9/2007 9:43:34 PM)
Gitmo's a malignant wart on the American body politic.  How is it that a country founded on the greatest principles of modern law:  confrontation of witnesses; right to counsel; right to trial; and other freedoms, could ignore the concepts that make it great?  How could we agree to a system of endless detention palliated with hearings before a kangaroo court?  We are a nation founded on the adversarial system of justice.  The thing is, we either agree that we're in a war and the people we detain are prisoners subject to the provisions of the Geneva convention, or we assert that they are indeed criminals, which should subject them to the protections and perils of trial in a system of objective justice based on the facts and not on ideology or prejudice. 


FINALLY! (chiefsjen - 2/9/2007 10:50:22 PM)
some men of honor and courage to do what's been needed for so long.  way to go murtha and moran (so proud he's from our neck of the woods -- i love him!)


go Senator Webb (toosinbeymen - 2/9/2007 11:04:29 PM)
It's so good to see a senator with a backbone. Not the first time your character has become obvious and I hope it's not the last.

I think you're the greatest, Senator Webb. And that's coming from a former US marine, as you are.

Your country needs you more now than it ever did before, Senator Webb. Keep it up!

Kind Regards,
Toosinbeymen