An Empire State Of Mind
I’m going to make a couple predictions:
1) Gitmo won’t be closed by the time Barack Obama is defeated in his bid for a second term. (Actually that’s two predictions)
2) At this very moment, somewhere in Yemen or the tribal regions of Pakistan, there is a man who will, in the next three years, find himself in U.S. custody with information we very badly need. That man will be waterboarded (although it won’t be called waterboarding…it’ll be called something like “Man Caused Aquatic Annoyance Therapy”).
On Friday the Obama Administration decided to move the trial of KSM and his fellow miscreants out of New York to an as yet undecided locale. This is yet another example of the President having to backtrack on a decision that simply wasn’t very well thought out.
What gives me night sweats is the fact that this administration plumbs for depths of incompetence farthest when it comes to national security. It is said that folks like W. and Dick Cheney were kept awake at night by the specter of another attack on this country that saw Americans having to choose between burning to death or jumping a hundred stories to the sidewalk below. They were obsessed (as they should have been) with punishing the perps of 9/11 and preventing another attack. As a result, there was a lot of thought put into the thorny issues surrounding the fight against terrorism. Many of these issues had no really good solutions. I don’t doubt the Obama Administration is concerned about terrorists. I just think the President views the War on Terror as one of a number of things that detract from attaining his goal of being the Gandhi of the 21st century. Potato rust in the Idaho crop this year? Our ambassador to Tongo wants a sex change? A guy trying to blow up an airliner with his underwear? All things that must never stand in the way of hopeandchange. There is a troubling “wave my magic wand” approach to President Obama’s handling of labyrinthine questions surrounding our struggle with militant Islam.
Exhibit A – Gitmo
First, to any progressives who might be reading this, my apologies. I’ve written the word “Gitmo” twice already in this post. I recognize that since Gitmo is Treblinka, the Anderson Prison and the fourth circle of hell all rolled into one, the mere mention of the place produces migraines, dry mouth, rash, gigantic eyeball syndrome, stomach upset, swollen tongue, anal leakage, painful joints, fainting, fast or irregular heartbeat, hallucinations, memory problems (eg, memory loss), mental or mood changes (eg, aggression, agitation, anxiety, depression), severe dizziness; shortness of breath, suicidal thoughts or actions and vision changes. Please try to soldier on.
President Obama yapped during the campaign about closing Gitmo and within a day of being sworn in made it so with an executive order closing the detention center. He did so, apparently, without giving a hell of a lot of thought to why Gitmo was created in the first place and what problems it was meant to solve. Where to put a sizeable population of irregulars (who fight for an enemy that has proven it can hit targets within our boundaries) caught on a battlefield who can’t be releases until hostilities are over (which is looking like never)? Secure and isolated, yet close to the shores of the United States, Gitmo is the perfect solution. The Obama Administration seems perplexed that U.S. citizens and their representatives don’t want to couple hundred terrorists living in their backyard; a nice, juicy target for the next Major Hassan who thinks its unjust to hold his brothers in such confinement.
Exhibit B – The New York Terror Trials
These trials would’ve seen the equivalent of a defendant in a murder trial pointing at the victim’s family in the courtroom and laughing at them. The entire rationale for the trial was to show the world that in fighting terror, we didn’t need to lose our values…that above all else the rule of law prevails in America. Apparently the President never thought, “What happens if they are acquitted?” This is born out by the President’s statement a couple days after the announcement of the New York trials, in which he stated that Khalid Sheik Mohammed would be found guilty and executed. Really Barack? Then why have the trials in the first place? If its for show, isn’t that the same thing they used to do in the Soviet Union? That they do in China?
It appears that the best option is to try these morons by military tribunal…at…you guessed it…Gitmo. Again, you can thank George W. Bush for doing the intellectual heavy lifting on this one for you, Barry O.
Exhibit C – The Christmas Bomber
Thank God the system worked on Christmas Day, when Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempted to blow up an airliner using explosives sewn into his skivvies. The TSA’s plan to embed Dutch film makers on international flights worked brilliantly when Jasper Schuringa subdued Abdulmutallab before the bomb could go off. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack, claiming it was in revenge for the American role in Yemen’s anti-terror military offensive. And, no, there was no mention of Gitmo in their statement.
After the plane landed, Abdulmutallab was whisked away for medical treatment and spent less than an hour of quality time with FBI agents before Attorney General Eric Holder had him mirandized. So, here we had, in custody, an enemy foot soldier fresh from Yemen, the newest front in the War On Terror. If I had been in charge, I would’ve immediately opened up a can of “Man Caused Aquatic Annoyance Therapy” on his ass. Instead, he was allowed to lawyer up.
Abdulmutallab is the poster boy for our new approach to gleaning vital intelligence from enemy prisoners. We’re going to use sophisticated, civilized interrogation techniques instead of “torture”. Well, from what I’ve read of these sophisticated, civilized interrogation techniques, they take longer than 50 minutes to work. They require a team of experts engaging in repetitive, ongoing sessions with the prisoner over a period of months, even years.
Thank God we have those experts, right? Last August the President took away the responsibility of interrogations from the CIA and gave it to the newly formed High Value Interrogation Group, which is directly supervised by the White House. Why didn’t they fly to Detroit to question the Undie Bomber? Well, they don’t exist yet. The President has found time to vacation in Hawaii and crash meetings in Copenh”aaa”gen, but couldn’t find the time to put together the High Value Interrogation Group. That’s because the President believes that it can’t happen here; that 9/11 was some freakish aberration that we best forgot… because the reason why “they” hate us is our response to 9/11, right?
Because of the Undie Bomber’s failed attempt, the President has been presented with a golden opportunity: a chance to learn from a failure which, thank God, didn’t cost anything more than Jasper Schuringa’s burned hands. History rarely presents leaders with such a Mulligan. My feeling is that, tragically, he won’t learn a thing. He’ll wake up to the fact that maybe Gitmo is a good idea and that some bad actors deserve a little quality time with a plank, a towel and a bucket of water only after the next attack happens. With the Eric Holders of the world in charge, that next attack is inevitable.
