Obama Wrong to Close Gitmo

Obama Wrong to Close Gitmo

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
February 24, 2016

In yet another disastrous decision Barack Obama announced the closing of Guantanamo Bay detention camp (Gitmo) that has been incarcerating enemy combatants since its inception in January 2002.

“This is about closing a chapter in our history,” said Obama on Tuesday. In closing Gitmo and continuing to release captured terrorists, many of whom return to the battlefield, as well as planning to relocate others to the US mainland, it will only further remind people of the devastation visited upon New York City, Arlington, VA, and Shanksville, PA on a beautiful late summer morning 15 years ago.

The September 11, 2001 chapter in American history will no more be closed than the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 will ever be closed. Indelibly etched in the hearts and minds of Americans of all ages and stripes, closing Gitmo will only serve to remind people of the feckless nature of Obama and his administration. An administration that refuses to call the enemy what they are – Muslim/Islamic extremists and/or radical Muslims – even when they themselves, in the form of ISIS/ISIL call themselves the Islamic State.

During his announcement Obama linked himself to former President George W. Bush and Arizona Senator John McCain, both Republicans; by saying they too supported the shuttering of Gitmo. Unfortunately, both Bush and McCain were just as wrong as Obama remains today. Obama said that former bipartisan support for the closing of Gitmo turned into a partisan issue. That’s because those in favor of retaining Gitmo for the purpose of imprisoning the enemy seeking to kill Americans, Christians, Jews, and otherwise destroy the fabric of Western Civilization, got a clue, saw the light, and understand how dangerous these savages are.

Closing Gitmo “reflects our best thinking,” said Obama. Obviously, he is not thinking clearly at all. Only 91 detainees remain in Gitmo, said Obama, noting that 85 percent of the more than 800 have been returned to other countries. What Obama failed to indicate in his whitewashing of the story, is that many of the detainees have returned to the battlefield to continue their bloodthirsty quest of torture, car and bus bombing, beheading, and even immolation of those they deem infidels. Such “infidels” have recently included Christian children wanting to play soccer, Jewish mothers and children innocently riding buses in Israel, and Muslim children listening to so-called modern music.

Obama then attempted to make the case by saying there are “only 91 detainees” remaining in Gitmo, when he was guilty of releasing most of them in the first place. Of those, 35 are to be transferred to other countries – countries, that Obama said need to have strong security measures. How will Obama know? To which countries will these terrorists be sent? What assurances does he have? Such a thoughtless decision runs counterproductive to the continuing fight against terrorism, yet Obama said “we’ve examined all the options.”

How about the option of keeping Gtimo open and never having released the first terrorist?

Instead, Obama announced these terrorists will likely have new addresses in Colorado, Kansas, South Carolina, and six military bases, which he said would save money and lower costs by about $85 million a year. Save money by not building soccer fields for the terrorist prisoners. Save money by not giving terrorists cushy-tushy lives heeding to their demands for special food and housing conditions.

“The left portrays Gitmo as Treblinka with palm trees,” said Col. Ralph Peters on Fox News Wednesday morning. These terrorists have 300 channels of satellite television, a 20,000-plus book library, healthcare rivaling that which American citizens PAY for, thousands of video games, legal representation – all paid for by we the people – the taxpayers of the United States of America. The living conditions of these terrorists are far better than they would ever have in their third world toilets of countries. There are American veterans living on the streets who should be treated better than these terrorists, but they are not a priority to Obama. What is a priority to Obama is having normalized relations with Cuba as a legacy item.

Obama also advised that one of the most effective options is via the federal court system. These are enemy combatants, not common criminals – terrorists who want to see us, as a whole, dead, and Western Civilization a distant memory – just as they are attempting in Europe with the destruction of Christian religious antiquities.

On the very day Obama made his myopic announcement a former Gitmo detainee was arrested in Spain for plotting terrorist attacks. Also within hours of Obama’s statement Republican presidential hopefuls Senator Ted Cruz (TX), Senator Marco Rubio (FL), and Donald Trump decried it as misguided and dangerous, calling for Gitmo to not only remain open, but expand its numbers of terrorist detainees. On the flip side, and demonstrating their utter lack of understanding of this situation, both Democrats seeking their party’s nomination, Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders (Socialist-VT) fully support Obama’s plan. As a former Secretary of State Clinton should know better, but her record proves otherwise.

Call your House members. Call your Senators. Implore them, politely, to block the closure of Gitmo and make the lives of those confined there less comfortable. Call 202-224-3121 for the Capitol switchboard. There is far too much at stake as this nation is at a crossroads with the White House up for grabs, and now, due to the untimely passing of judicial giant Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court also hangs in the balance. It is imperative that we the people make our voices heard now more than ever.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.

Nidal Hasan is a Terrorist

Nidal Hasan is a Terrorist
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
June 5, 2013

On May 22, British soldier Lee Rigby, 25, was beheaded in broad daylight in London by two radicalized British Muslims, one of whom shouted Allah akbar (G-d is great). Both murderers were shot by a British policewoman as their act was immediately called terrorism. Rigby is survived by his two-year-old son.

Three days later, French soldier Private Cedric Cordiez, also 25, was stabbed in the neck by a convert to Islam. The attacker was arrested, while Cordiez survived the assault – an act called terrorism, was treated and released.

Flashback to November 5, 2009 where at Fort Hood, TX, Army Major Nidal Hasan, while shouting “Allah akbar,” opened fire slaughtering 13 innocent people – colleagues – and wounding another 32 innocents. This unquestionable act of premeditated terror was labeled “workplace violence” by the Pentagon on the directive of a feckless Obama administration.

This is not new news that Hasan has been charged with workplace violence instead of the obvious charge of terrorism, which is exactly what Hasan committed. But on the eve of the advent of jury selection in Hasan’s trial, it bears noting that this case should be tried in a military tribunal as opposed to the civilian court where it will be heard.

This entire case stinks from the top down. During the three and a half years of incarceration, Hasan has been paid his salary in full – to the tune of $278,000, vastly unknown to the taxpaying public who has foot this unconscionable bill. But, as Hasan has yet to be tried or found guilty, he apparently is entitled to his compensation, although he did absolutely nothing to earn it.

An additional obscenity in the Hasan case is that he has been granted permission to defend himself, with the presence of backup attorneys should the need arise. The only plus here is that Hasan has been declared sane in order to defend himself, and guilty by reason of insanity is out as a defense. Clearly the old adage of “he who defends himself has a fool for a client,” applies here.

The flip side of this travesty is that the surviving wounded victims can be called to the stand to be questioned by Hasan and forced to relieve that horrific day one more time, as if they already don’t relive it every day.

Furthermore, while Hasan is collecting his full salary, the wounded have not had the same access to medical care or benefits had this rampage been declared terrorism, as it should have been declared. And because of the workplace violence label, the living wounded victims and the 13 who were murdered will be unable to receive the Purple Heart, either live or posthumously.

Shockingly, the Defense Department said there is not enough evidence to call Hasan's heinous actions terrorism, yet it was Hasan himself who said the shootings were to protect the Taliban. Apparently the DOD can't see the forest for the trees.

In being tried in a civilian court, Hasan will be granted a forum to pontificate in ways that are linked to his defense, which due to all the witnesses, should not amount to much, but the show must go on, as they say on Broadway.

Bright lights and big city or not, Hasan, 42, an Army psychiatrist, made his objections to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan well-known as well as his animus toward his comrades. For this, the trial should be an open and shut case with the penalty being either life in prison or the death penalty.

But the trial is merely a symptom of a bigger problem, that being the mollifying of radical Muslims who seem to get a pass at every turn and rights not afford other groups or protections not afforded other groups.

A couple examples of this include workers making demands of employers to not fulfill certain aspects of the job for which they were hired because they might violate their religious beliefs, and punishing people for potentially offending Muslims, when the same offenses of other religious groups are allowed to occur unpunished.

There is a double standard growing in the United States simply because there is an administration sympathetic to the cause of radical Islam. This administration turns a blind eye and a deaf ear in an effort to placate the Muslim community to which this administration seem beholden.

Well, blind eyes and deaf ears will not be found here and we will be paying attention to the Hasan trial with the hopes that 12 men and women will do their jobs, find this terrorist guilty of workplace violence and sentence him to death.

The Obama administration can call this workplace violence all day long, but at the end of that long day, we the people know the truth – Nidal Hasan is a terrorist.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.