Video- Fox & Friends flip over decision to house some Gitmo detainees in Illinois prison

Terrorists in the coffee shops? Oh my.

Video- Fox News' Carina Sonn reports Thomson, IL, residents "pretty open" to housing Guantanamo detainees

Man, they must hate it when they punk themselves.

Palau agrees to take 12 Uighurs from Guantanamo: U.S

These Caribbean and Pacific islands sure are stepping up. Last I read, there were just over two hundred left (can't find the exact stats, but here is the Wiki page). Oh and Hungary just took one.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration has agreed with Palau to transfer up to 12 of the 13 Uighur Chinese detainees still held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the Pacific island nation, according to a letter obtained by Reuters on Thursday.

So far, six Uighurs have agreed to go to Palau and the Obama administration hopes two more will agree soon, according to a letter from the U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court which is considering whether to hear an appeal by the detainees to be released.

Another four Uighurs have already been moved to Bermuda from the controversial U.S. military prison which President Barack Obama has pledged to close by January 2010. At present there are still some 226 detainees at the facility.

Two Gitmo Detainees Headed to Ireland

Yeah!!! Good on the land of my ancestors.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs announced this morning that Ireland today announced it will accept two Uzbek detainees transferred from Guantanamo Bay.

“I know they wanted to be helpful, and we appreciate their willingness and ability to do that,” Gibbs said of the offer from the Irish government. “These were detainees that were ruled to be able to be transferred without further detention.”

(snip)

Irish justice minister Dermot Ahern said in a statement that “In making this decision I am conscious of the intention of the United States to close the center at Guantánamo Bay, in part by transferring detainees, no longer regarded as posing a threat to security but who cannot return to their own countries, to other countries willing to accept them.”

Video- “Guantanamo” brought to you by the Guantanamo Bay Tourism Board

Heh. Brought to you by Parody and Sons for the Guantanamo Bay Tourism Board.

Obama: Italy agrees to take 3 Guantanamo inmates

Whittling them down, closing it up.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama won agreement from Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Monday to accept three prisoners held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Obama made the announcement after talks with Berlusconi as the U.S. leader pressed efforts to move inmates from Guantanamo, which houses foreign terrorism detainees and has drawn international criticism, to other countries as part of his plan to close the prison by January.

(snip)

The European Union said earlier on Monday its member states were ready to help resettle detainees freed from the detention center at the U.S. Naval base in Cuba.

Three Guantanamo detainees were transferred to Saudi Arabia "under appropriate security measures" last week, the U.S. Justice Department said on Friday.

New GOP Phrase For Detainee Pictures: “Terrorist Propaganda Photos”

Greg catches the new meme.

Get ready to hear Republicans and conservative opinion-makers using a new phrase to describe the unreleased photos of detainees that are at the center of a white-hot political war right now: “Terrorist propaganda photos.”

The House GOP leadership just used the phrase for the first time this morning in a statement they sent to me. The phrase was cooked up in hopes that it will catch on with other GOPers, and it probably will do just that.

(snip)

The new phrase is a reference to the GOP claim that such photos help terrorist recruitment, and signals that Republicans think they can milk this one for all it’s worth. Get ready to hear it again, and again, and…

Video- Joan Walsh vs Liz Cheney on Bringing Gitmo Detainees to the U.S.

YEAH JOAN!!! Via Heather.

First Guantanamo al Qaeda suspect in New York for trial

Progress!! And I'm guessing NYC will survive.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An al Qaeda suspect accused in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa was transferred from Guantanamo Bay Tuesday for prosecution in a New York court, the Justice Department said.

Ahmed Ghailani will become the first Guantanamo detainee to go on trial in a civilian U.S. court. He was to make an appearance in federal court in Manhattan later in the day, the department said in a statement.

(snip)

"The Justice Department has a long history of securely detaining and successfully prosecuting terror suspects through the criminal justice system, and we will bring that experience to bear in seeking justice in this case," Attorney General Eric Holder said in the statement.

Americans Opposed to Closing Gitmo

This is what a horrible, disorganized message from the Democrats gets you. Dumbasses.

Americans are "overwhelmingly opposed" to closing the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and moving some of the prisoners to prisons in the U.S., a USA Today/Gallup Poll finds.

"By more than 2-1, those surveyed say Guantanamo shouldn't be closed. By more than 3-1, they oppose moving some of the accused terrorists housed there to prisons in their own states."

"The findings underscore the difficult task President Obama faces in convincing those at home that he should follow through on his campaign promise to close the prison in Cuba, especially in the absence of a plan of where the prisoners would go."

Video- Italy will consider accepting Guantanamo detainees, premier says

Cartoon of the Day

Click to enlarge, via.

Cartoon of the Day

Click to enlarge, via.

Barack Obama may get support of rivals on Guantanamo

Funny, I'm not hearing alot of substance on the merits of the argument today, just more fearmongering and sturm and drang.

If President Barack Obama is going to turn the page on Guantanamo, he may need help from two of his old rivals: John McCain and his sidekick, Lindsey Graham.

While Senate Republicans have shown a united front on Guantanamo, the Arizonan and the South Carolinian are among a handful of GOP senators poised to break away from their party if the White House offers an appealing plan for dealing with the detainees and closing the prison.

McCain, who has always spoken out against torture, believes that keeping the facility open hurts America’s standing abroad, and Graham, a military justice expert, is also working with the White House on Guantanamo proposals.

So if Obama threads the needle on this issue — and keeps Democrats in line — he may grab the votes of these GOP senators and trump the Republican opposition in the end. Obama seems to sense the usefulness of his campaign rivals, too: He explicitly mentioned McCain and Graham in his Thursday speech on Guantanamo.

Video- CNN's Anderson Cooper vs. Dick Cheney's Daughter On Gitmo/Torture

Okay, I'm having a problem coming up with one word that describes her demeanor in this segment. Condescending? Haughty? Psychopathic? At least Anderson gave her a fight.

Live Streaming Video- President Obama speaks at 10:10 am EST

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

ADDED- Looks like it will be closer to 10:30 now. Transcript of speech as prepared here.
Heh, it looks like Cheney is delaying his speech until after Obama's. Good luck with that Dick.

Carl Levin Is Open to ‘Guantánamo North’ in Michigan

We could be in the process of allocating money to build new prisons and generating new jobs if we had the proper leadership.

Carl Levin , chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said that construction and staffing at a new maximum-security prison in Michigan could help his cash-starved state.

“If the governor and the local officials are open to it, that’s something that should be considered,” said Levin, making the point that each state should make its own determination.

Former Michigan Gov. John Engler, a Republican, suggested this month that creating a “Guantánamo North” in the Upper Peninsula could net the state upward of $1 billion per year, according to reports.

(snip)

Even Levin’s Republican counterpart on the committee, John McCain of Arizona, said he was open to the possibility of moving Guantánamo detainees to secure facilities in the United States, saying, “It depends on the circumstances.”
But McCain said the issue has been muddied by the public perception that the administration would release dangerous prisoners to walk the streets in U.S. neighborhoods. “Whether that’s accurate or inaccurate, that’s the impression that the American people have,” McCain said.

Dick Durbin to GOP: 'You ought to have a little more respect' for American corrections officers.

Too late Dick, you've let the R's frame the debate and they won-

FBI director concerned about Gitmo releases

WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI Director Robert Mueller says he is concerned that Guantanamo Bay detainees could support terrorism if sent to the United States.

During his appearance Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee, Mueller was asked what concerns the FBI has about the Obama administration plans to shut the detention facility by January 2010.

The director said he was generally concerned about whether such individuals might provide financial support to terror networks, radicalize others, or even take part in attacks within the United States.

Quote of the Day

Senator Sessions is a GOP up and comer fer shure!! Via Taegan-

"They wouldn't be treated any better in the United States, and they wouldn't have the tropical breezes blowing through."

-- Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), quoted by the Washington Post, defending the continued detention of prisoners at the military facility in Guantanamo Bay.

Obama: Photos Not "Sensational," Would "Inflame Anti-American Opinion"