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Two Obamas -- the Script and the Reality
by Charles Davis via sal - ICH Thursday, May 2 2013, 8:37am
international / prose / post

"The idea that we would still detain forever a group of individuals that have not been tried, that is contrary to who we are, that is contrary to our interests and it has to stop.” That was Obama in initial election mode condemning Guantanamo Bay and duping the global population. Though we are happy to state that only Americans believe that black, lying, servant to Wall St, today.

His scripted rhetoric was bold and progressive. The reality is somewhat different. At least half of 166 never-tried, never-convicted prisoners that reside at Guantanamo Bay are engaged in a hunger strike that is making the president look bad. And so the man with a kill list who is ultimately responsible for them being there – and whose initial plan for closing the prison was simply moving it to Illinois – had to act as if he was deeply troubled by his poor human rights record, like an oil executive shedding tears for Mother Earth after a big spill.

What Obama's handlers are banking on is the fact that most people (including his base) aren't terribly detail oriented. The tale liberal Democrats tell themselves, which is also pumped out of the mass media as propaganda, is that the fight over Guantanamo Bay is between Obama, a bunch of ACLU lawyers on one side and the forces of fear-mongering and reactionary insanity on the other. The president expects us to believe that he is facing irrational hostility from the Chicken Littles of the right and would like to do the right thing -- well, 'of course' he would -- but you know the Republicans!

However, that narrative, unfortunately for Obama, is completely false. The true story is that Obama signed an executive order creating "a formal system of indefinite detention for those held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay" in order to legalize the detention of hundreds of prisoners who were/are being held illegally according to every international law governing international detainees.

Rather than repudiate the notion of “detain[ing] forever a group of individuals that have not been tried,” Obama (through a task force he commissioned) determined that 48 of the prison camp's detainees were “too dangerous to transfer but not feasible for prosecution.” The evidence against those men would not be admissible even by the weakened standards of today's military commissions, as the admissions made had probably been extracted under torture, how embarrassing!

Obama clearly had a number of options, to release the innocent or make profuse apologies/restitution for the maltreatment of illegally held detainees; but rather than release them, as if they were human beings endowed with certain inalienable rights granted under UN Charter, Obama chose to lock them away indefinitely/until they die -- such a 'noble' character! The president has even refused to release dozens of Yemeni citizens who have been cleared of all wrongdoing.

Obama also signed a Bill, which his lawyers defended in court, that allows for the indefinite detention of US citizens. And let's not forget the 'kill list,' which is based on the idea that it's alright for the president to act as judge, jury and executioner, so long as the unilateral justice is being delivered abroad.

So when the president of the United States righteously condemns the idea of imprisoning someone forever without charge or trial, it's important to remember the TRUTH about the man and his record; it's important to remember that he is a reprehensible LIAR!

[Edited.]

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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article34788.htm