Justice at Guantanamo

GUILTY: (at last!!!)


Amid the constant false representations and much speculation concerning our government's detention operation at Guantanamo Naval Base on the southeastern edge of the main island of the communist nation of Cuba, the military panel has convicted its first captured terrorist, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni, who served among an elite corp of Bin Ladin insiders serving as the evil Islamic radical mastermind's bodyguards and drivers. The six panel military commission found Hamdan guilty of conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism. The sentencing phase will now begin where the convict could serve up to a life sentence.


This conviction represents a huge victory in the anti-terrorism program of the United States that has faced tremendous criticism for setting up the Cuban Island facillity and not handling the process through more convential channels including possibly the Federal Court System. Sadly, most of the world's perception of the "Gitmo" center are based on a fierce misinformation campaign waged by idealogues in the liberal press and political forces hostile toward the American government's policies. Where the military officials have gone to great pains to provide prisoners of the war against terrorism every reasonable accomodation while still maintaining secure confinement, all kinds of false scandalous reports have circulated in the world press and been given either impicit or explicit support by major political figures including Presidential Candidate, Barrack Obama, who even suggested as much in his campaign speech in Berlin. Given the prisoners are almost all followers of Islam, their supervisors have gone through great pains to allow them to practice their religion, provide them with personal copies of The Koran, prayer rugs, and even arrows painted on the ground and floors pointing them toward Mecca for their daily prayer rituals. Further, they are provided rich and nutritious diets in total conformity to Islamic tradition and further no "infidels" meaning soldiers guarding them are even allowed to touch their holy book. Aside from the most dangerous prisoners, detainees are afforded a variety of recreational activities, reading materials, and other comforts. Some observers have commented many of them are treated better than prisoners in state and local prisons in the United States.

It is outrageous how terribly and inaccurately the situation at Guantanamo Bay has been misrepresented by the left-wing biased press and through out the errant babbling of the Hollywood crowd who act as mindless bobbleheads for whatever is the cause or issue du jour. The misrepresentation of our government's painstaking efforts to secure terrorists from causing the world additional harm while doing so in a humane and American way is a tremendous challenge that the Pentagon, National Security, and Justice Officials along with elected representatives on Capitol Hill have slaved over and debated to come up with an effective solution. Sadly, the entertainment industry that runs the major television news operations, seeks to portray our efforts as some kind of villainous scandal, our government gone wrong, when our country is faced by a new kind of threat that has never been addressed before in warfare or the justice system. It is appalling and disgusting many sympathize with those who would kill us in an instant that at least give some measure of respect to our government. While there is so much discussion and whining about people being criticized for their patriotism or lack of in the face of danger, one thing is for certain, anyone who would lie about the United States and knowingly create false impressions about its activities is not only unpatriotic but their behavior comes darn close to if not equal to treason.


The bottom line is the program, if properly supervised and not unrealistically manipulated by obsessive concerns for political correctness is working. It's disappointing that it has taken so long for the first case to be heard, but many steps have had to be taken and many objections dealt with and subsequent policy adjustments implimented to lead to this day.


Sadly, not all Americans understand what's at stake here and how the treatment of enemy combatants differs from criminal suspects who are citizens of the United States. The United States Constitution was written to establish the laws which govern citizens residing in the United States. There is much debate to what the founding document mandates pertaining to condtions of warfare and the scope of our government's authority outside our boundaries, but the Gitmo solution appears to be the best accomodation for providing reasonable justice for terror suspects while maintaining safety and security for those they threaten.


What should be strongly asserted and understood by all who would criticize the Guantanamo experience is that of the prisoners released so far, shocking numbers of those released have later turned up dead or arrested as recombantants engaged once again in warfare and terror against the United States and its allies.


Citizens of the United States and the free world must understand, the war against radical Islam did not begin with the United States and its allies invading Afghanistan or later Iraq. Those actions were our government's response on how it chose to deal with the war hateful terrorist factions from through out the Moslem world have waged on us beginning with the rise of the Islamic Revolution in Iran where our embassy was seized and its employees held captive for 404 days escalating with the suicide bombings against our embassy and Marines in Beirut, the downing of the Panam flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, the TWA highjacking where American soldier Robert Stedham was brutally tortured to death by his captors in full view of the passenger hostages, the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the first attempt to blow up the World Trade Center, the embassy bombings in Africa, the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, and finally culminating with the genocide against every day American citizens in New York and Arlington, Virginia on 9/11/01. Our country did not chose or start the big war that will continue regardless of our deployment in Iraq or any other destinataion around the world.


We must fight with intense resolve on all fronts and accept that until all vestages of Islamic extremism is defeated, the struggle will go on. We must use diplomacy, propaganda, foreign trade and every means possible to enrich our relationship with non-terrorist states; however, when it comes to the truly evil, those determined to harm us, the whole world must understand with no equivocation, the terrorists have two choices when dealing with the United States surrender or we will kill you. Any position lesser than that is pussyfooting with appeasement.


Every American citizen is responsible for recognizing the overwhelming threat posed by Moslem extremists and that all of us play a roll in its defeat. We must hold our elected officials to the highest standards to be resolute and unyielding in protecting the quality of life and freedoms we hold dear. There are no lesser solutions.