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MAF Blogger Danny
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It was a good week for 3 the three GITMO detainees that Obama’s administration announced on Friday that they had transferred, two to Ireland and one to Yemen.

The Yemeni detainee is an interesting case according to this article from ABC:

Known at Gitmo as Captive 692, the government labeled Ali Ahmed an “enemy combatant,” saying he “was associated with Al-Qaeda. He was present on the front lines in Bagram, Afghanistan. He was identified by a senior Al-Qaeda facilitator as having been a resident at a safehouse in Kandahar, Afghanistan in 2000 (his individual also saw the detainee at a safehouse located in Faisalabad, Pakistan in February 2002 with a group of Yemenis who had fled Afghanistan). Finally, the Detainee was identified by another individual, a senior Al-Qaeda operational planner, as having resided at a safehouse located in Kandahar in 2001.”

The article also said that “The Yemeni Embassy to the US issued a statement saying the country welcomed, “with enthusiasm, the release and transfer of its citizen."”

I’m sure they are ecstatic. And I’m sure Detainee 692 is thanking his lucky stars that soon he will be tasting freedom again and then he will be free to join his buddies in Al Qaeda again and get right back to work plotting to kill Americans.

Alongside this refreshing and encouraging news from GITMO, Obama’s administration has made a series of interesting statements regarding their plans to shut down the base and bring the terrorists to American soil. For the first time last week we saw spokespersons for the administration and even Secretary Gates admitting that the pie in the sky ideas about closing GITMO in one year were not well thought out.

“I think it has proven more complicated than anticipated,” Gates said in an interview broadcast Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Obviously. Anyone could have seen that the administration was not taking the question seriously, yet at the same time making outrageous statements that the Prison could be closed in a year. LONG BEFORE Obama even sent a team to actually assess the conditions at GITMO. So of course when you’re making policy decisions predicated on ZERO information gathered, you’re going to miscalculate.

Odd how President Obama can make decrees about closing GITMO based on no information yet when it comes to providing our Generals with the manpower and the firepower they need to crush the Taliban then he needs tons of reports and time to make a deliberate decision. Meanwhile more of our troops are being hurt and they can’t even call in the big guns to soften up the enemy.

Senator McCain makes another guest appearance that makes one pause and ask whose side are you on?

“Apparently they’re certainly not going to make that deadline,” McCain said. “But we should continue to work towards the closure of Guantanamo Bay because of the image that it has in the world, of brutality, [which] harms our image very badly.”

Image of brutality? That’s a complete farce, and McCain knows it. So why is he saying we should bow to this pressure? When did McCain, who was such a strong supporter of our war on terror start making decisions, like Obama, based on what other people THINK when you KNOW the truth to be contrary to that.

Well, wasting no time, Democrats have started pointing fingers at each other and at the Administration to place blame on someone for dropping the ball.

Here, some blame congress

Several advocates of closing the prison — as Obama pledged to do within one year as one of his first acts as president — said Craig is being made the fall guy for a lack of attention across the senior levels of the government, combined with the unwillingness of congressional Democrats to stand behind the plan to close the prison.

Then some in congress blame the Administration

“Those of us on the Hill who wanted to defend the administration’s policy because we knew we had the facts on our side got no back up, no support, no information,” Moran said, speculating that the Obama team simply didn’t want to spend political capital on the issue.

Moran is featured in a youtube video being called out by one of his constituents - a vet - for not attending their homecoming ceremony and sending them postcards thanking them for their service in Iraq when they were serving in Afghanistan.

Now the administration is trying to press the reset button on Guantanamo, but Moran argued the damage is done and it is now nearly impossible to sell the idea of moving the prisoners to U.S. soil.

“This is their first major f—- up, and it’s an enormous f—- up, because now that you’ve lost ground you’re not going to be able to recover it,” said Moran.