Further roiling the Gitmo-politico-gulagian waters, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, Democratic leader of the House of Representatives, announced legislation that would create an independent commission to investigate detainee abuse modeled after the one created to investigate the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
"These questions are important because the safety of our country depends on our reputation and how we are viewed, especially in the Muslim world," she said.
California Democrat Rep. Henry Waxman, the ranking minority member of the House Government Reform Committee, chimed in. "Our national interest demands a thorough independent review of the detention system. We need answers to basic questions. What happened? Who is responsible? And how do we move forward?
"The Pentagon's internal investigations certainly do not meet this standard. The resulting reports have contained conflicting conclusions and some have been little more than whitewashes," Waxman said.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan pooh-poohed the idea, saying, "The Department of Defense has taken these issues head-on and addressed them. They continue to look into allegations of abuse. People are being held to account, and we think that's the way to go about this."
McClellan said the detainees — "dangerous enemy combatants ... who seek to do harm to the American people" — were "treated humanely" at Guantanamo.
House Republican Leader Tom DeLay of Texas called the Democratic commission push "strictly politics."
The crux of the matter is international PR vs. security gained by incarceration of these individuals and/or intelligence yet to be gathered from them.
Article comments
1 - RealCon
Of course, what the Democrats are doing is nothing but politics. And what the Republicans are doing is pure politics.
What else is new?
What should be of interest to Americans is the effect of any abuse on the rest of the world.
It’s not what we are actually doing or did that counts -- it’s the perception that counts.
Why not publicly answer basic questions and put the matter to rest for once and for all?
But of course, like the 9/11 commission, it will be resisted by the White House. That is to be expected.
As far as the detainees are concerned, if they are guilty of something -- give them a fair trial -- and then take them out and hang them…
2 - Randy Kirk
How do you propose to give someone who was picked up on the battlefield a trial, fair or not?
3 - RealCon
That last paragraph was tongue in cheek.
4 - gonzo marx
decent Question, Randy...
can we start with some type of Hearing..military is fine..something like..
"#53...yes your Honor..this one was shootin gout a window, caught with a rifle, two pistols and a box of grenades
right, toss that one in lon gterm holding till the shooting stops....next!
#54 was picked up on a sweep...he claims to be the local chicken merchant..his is hal fblind and has 3 teeth, subject is also approximately 183 years old...
right..ok, this one is a tough call, maybe we should call Afghanistan and see is his story check out...give the geezer a decent room and some pudding...
next!"
i dunno, perhaps someone from the Red Cross and/or Amnesty International there...decent photo op for the media pool..even "embedd" a cutie from CourtTv!!
it's the whole transparency bit, quite the fine line between a humane prison camp and an abbatoir of the Inquisition
a lot of this has been clearly del;ineated in international Law for just these purposes..unfortuneately someone gave the Administration some wacky advice a few years ago...you know, the guy that's now Attorney General...and this whole "enemy combatant" thing and flying the prisoners halfway across the world, onto an island ruled by one of the last communist dictatorships, for those keeping score, and dumped incommunicado for as much as 3 years now, with no "war" in Afghanistan...a new governmenr , Recognized bu the US , the UN and the rest of the world...but we are keeping their bad kids in Cuba?
and some folks think i am strange...
you want to get rid of the bitching..get Harmid Kharzid to do a speech and press conference, make a big stink about sending a "commandant" to watch over the "rights" of his citizens according to Afghan law...wait a bit, then have the puppet say everything is peachy
problem solved
heh..and if i were the Galactic Overlord, all my storm troopers would wear clear plastic helmets so miserable do-gooders couldn't sneak up on me that way....
but i digress....
Excelsior!
5 - SFC SKI
Anything Nancy Pelosi suggests or does shold be viewed with suspicion, she oozes partisanship and opportunism at every turn. That doesn't mean there are not Dems or Reps who are incapable of being members of a bipartisan committtee, though. Will a committee get to the heart of this matter without being another instance of political grandsatnding? I doubyt it?
Will the American public actually read the committee's findings thoroughly? I don't know, butI am sure it will sell well.
Gonzo, the little bit about Amnesty INt'l and the Rad Cross (Int'l Committe, I suppose) almost had me snorting coffee out my nose, thanks!
For a place that is supposed to be a Gulag, it sure gets talked and written about openly enough. Show of hands, how many watched the committee hearings regarding GITMO last weeek on C-Span?
6 - Steven Ramirez
Are we to believe Reps. Pelosi and Waxman simply because they say abuse exists at Gitmo? Why, of course: It's not the nature of the evidence that counts, it's the seriousness of the charge!
Remember: Supposed abuse was "documented" in an unsubstantiated "report" from NEWSWEAK magazine, apparently done in the same manner Dan Rather and CBS "documented" "facts" from invented memos.
With no solutions of their own to offer, Reps. Pelosi and Waxman were only too happy to leap to the "conclusions" in NEWSWEAK that so conveniently suited their agenda: antiwar, anti-military, anti-Bush.
And they call what they're doing Democratic leadership?
7 - gonzo marx
i guess the fact that they have a couple of memo's from the FBI doesn't count with Steven here...
no matter...that's why i advocate a transparent process, witnessed by "outside" Observers
you want to shut up the critics...let them in and see how it really works
i mean, to use the GOP "logic" so often touted...if there is nothing to hide, why not let folks see for themselves?
just a Thought...
Excelsior!
8 - SFC SKI
"you want to shut up the critics...let them in and see how it really works"
Agreed.
9 - gonzo marx
mark it on yer calendar's, kiddies..
me and Ski in total agreement
now that's newsworthy
..:::bows, hand over fist:::..
Excelsior!
10 - SFC SKI
It's only one sentence, gonzo, not an ideology.