Jihadi Recidvism

Barack the Obamessiah signed several executive orders earlier this week, one of which was a directive to close Gitmo within 1 year, fulfilling a campaign promise to his Bush-hating, terrorist-loving kook Left base. Of course, this brings a whole new set of problems:

I heard one radio report suggesting that Leavenworth was on a short list of locations to which these terrorists would be moved. How about it, KC? Feel like having some terrorists in your back yard?

House Republican Minority Leader John Boehner responded this way:

“The Guantanamo Bay prison is filled with the worst of the worst – terrorists and killers bent on murdering Americans and other friends of freedom around the world. If it is closed, where will they go, will they be brought to the United States, and how will they be secured? Will they be released by the courts, despite reports that more than 60 former terrorist detainees have already returned to battlefields to fight us again? Unfortunately, in briefings yesterday the new Administration did not have any real answers to these concerns.

“Just as important, if a terrorist detainee is brought to the United States that terrorist is automatically afforded more constitutional rights than U.S. military personnel under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. That only increases the threat that a judge will release the detainee into the U.S. population. There are also serious questions about whether the Army Field Manual, while appropriate to guide soldiers on the battlefield, is best suited for professionally-administered lawful interrogations. Republicans want to work with our President to address these national security concerns, but we should not gamble with the safety and security of the American people and our troops on the battlefield. It would be irresponsible to close this terrorist detainee facility until these important questions are answered.”

At least there's one reasonably sane guy in Washington! Unfortunately, there aren't many others. So how did the Obama administration take this idea of having to answer questions? Not well:

QUESTION: Robert, how can you say the executive order on Guantanamo Bay -- you can say clearly made America safer today, when it doesn't seem like you really have a plan yet about where the detainees are going to go?

[Obama Press Secretary Robert] GIBBS: Well, one of the -- I think one of the things that the commission and one of the things that the executive orders does is begin the process whereby the current administration can examine what exactly is going on and who exactly is there. ...

That's why I was careful in saying that the process by which this will undertake over the course of up to one year will determine, as Greg laid out, who's involved in what status of detainee, which group that they're involved in, and ultimately study how best to -- to deal with them in a way that protects our country, protects our values, and administers justice.

QUESTION: So these are terror suspects, and the American people are hearing, "Washington's going to study it." They're going to find out for a few more months, what are we going to do with these detainees? So what...

GIBBS: Well, it is day two. ...

QUESTION: No, but he was talking about it on the campaign for months, on Guantanamo Bay.

QUESTION: But the bottom line is that you've been talking about it -- the president talked about it on the campaign trail. People have studied this for a long time. And you're now signing the executive order without a plan for where the detainees will be. What assurances can you give the...

GIBBS: No. No, we've signed an executive order to establish the plan for what happens.

QUESTION: But what assurance can you give the American people that these detainees just won't wind up out on the streets, won't go back to their home countries and launch new terror attacks?

GIBBS: I can assure them that that -- all of -- all of what you just enumerated will be undertaken and studied as part of a commission to look into these very complex, very detailed questions.

So, in other words, Obama's order accomplishes nothing other than to kick the can down the road. The question of what to do with the terrorists will be "studied"--and, by the way, it's now a "very complex, very detailed question."

Gibbs did essentially the same thing with the question of 'torture', saying he'd need to consult with legal counsel before answering the question. My, how inspiring and assuring.

Here's the icing on the cake. If these executive orders go through, they will be directly responsible for putting Americans at risk. Even if they are all fluff and never get enacted or enforced, we still have some giant question marks about Obama himself. Uber-conservative Rush Limbaugh illuminates us here.

Unreal. And this is the guy who is in charge of protecting America for the next four years? We'll be lucky to make it four months.

There's my two cents.