The Politics of Torture and Guantanamo Bay

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Thursday January 21, 2010 · 7:02 AM PST

2010/01/21 · 07:02

Combat Veterans and Senator Elect Scott Brown (R-MA) are arriving on Capitol Hill today with opposite messages. Your voice is needed too. More than 20 veterans working with New Security Action and VoteVets will be meeting with Members of Congress and their staffs to talk about why the prison at Guantanamo Bay needs to be closed now. These veterans will be speaking from experience, with the first-hand knowledge that Gitmo does not make us safer. But tell that individuals like Senator Elect Scott Brown who used justified torture in his campaign and played on the fears of the public to push a distortions about the prison. But we're not going to stand silent. We, VoteVets and thousands of others are speaking out today. Join us.

blacksnob

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Wednesday January 20, 2010 · 9:43 AM PST

2010/01/20 · 09:43

With the anniversary of the president's commitment to closing Guantanamo this week, New Security Action is releasing a new video highlighting Republican fearmongering on Gitmo, featuring veteran and terrorist interrogator Matthew Alexander.

blacksnob

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Wednesday January 13, 2010 · 7:24 AM PST

2010/01/13 · 07:24

In one of the most amazing stories I've heard since the prison at Guantanamo Bay was opened, a former guard, Brandon Neely of Texas, has come out against the prison and is talking about his old job. But he didn't stop just there. He reached out to two former detainees on Facebook, then flew to Great Britain to meet them and apologize in person. Said Neely about Gitmo: "The news would always try to make Guantanamo into this great place ... like 'they [prisoners] were treated so great'. No it wasn't. You know here I was basically just putting innocent people in cages."

blacksnob

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Monday January 11, 2010 · 11:11 AM PST

2010/01/11 · 11:11

More than 500 people have been released from the prison at Guantanamo Bay because we had no reason to hold them. They were picked up for the wrong reasons in mass raids, locked away based on old grudges, misinformation and hearsay. The military let them go because they looked for a terrorist and didn't find one. But some people can't be bothered with pesky things like facts or numbers. Some people are like Illinois Rep. Mark Kirk who, quite proudly, remarked that Taliban leadership was staffed and lead by "hardened" former Gitmo detainees. This despite the fact that a majority of Taliban leadership has never ... been ... in ... Gitmo.

blacksnob

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Friday January 08, 2010 · 8:28 AM PST

2010/01/08 · 08:28

Maybe they thought the report would be less wrong the second go round. For some reason, the New York Times thought it was fit to essentially reprint a retracted story about Gitmo detainees and their recidivism numbers. Now claiming that one-in-five detainees "return to the fight," this new story sounds a lot like an old one that made a similar, junk science claim. But folks aren't letting this one sit idle. Here's a round up of what our friends are saying about this fraudulent report.

blacksnob

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Tuesday January 05, 2010 · 7:38 AM PST

2010/01/05 · 07:38

Poor Sen. Jim DeMint. He just can't decide if he's unhappy with President Obama because of semantics or if he thinks the President is actually doing a good job with counter-terrorism. And it doesn't help that DeMint's been repeating Dick Cheney's meme that Obama is afraid to use the word "terrorism." Nothing like an argument over frivolous word choice in the middle of our very serious national security debate. It must be just so very, very hard for DeMint to figure out this flip-floppin' conundrum, especially when he's so busy putting the nation at risk by holding up political appointees to the Transportation Security Agency. What? DeMint didn't mention that? It's something about Unions. Scary, scary unions. Those same Unions who aren't al Qaeda and aren't a threat to our national security.

blacksnob

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Friday December 18, 2009 · 7:34 AM PST

2009/12/18 · 07:34

Sometimes to win a losing argument you just have to stop making sense. In the case of some Republicans and the prison at Guantanamo Bay playing "crazy" seems to be the best bet. Nothing like playing Chicken Little Hawk with your head cut off, throwing your beaks up to the sky, screaming, "The terrorists are coming! The terrorists are coming!" Of course, they're "coming" to a maximum security prison in rural Illinois where they will be housed until they face trial. And they will be in prison on US soil, the same soil that currently holds more than 300 terrorists, international and domestic. The same soil where since 2001, 195 terrorists have been tried and convicted. This is a been there, done that situation. But I guess, scream now, scream again is more apropos for some Republicans.

blacksnob

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Thursday December 17, 2009 · 7:37 AM PST

2009/12/17 · 07:37

White House Press Secy. Robert Gibbs didn't mince any words Tuesday when he unabashedly called some of the Great Right Wing Freak-Out over Guantanamo Bay detainees coming to a prison in Thomson, Ill. "crazy." He specifically called out GOP House Minority Leader John Boehner when he said, "I have seen some far crazier comments today -- comments from people like John Boehner. Here's what I would suggest for John Boehner. Call up Leon Panetta or Denny Blair at the CIA or the director of national intelligence. Ask them if he can come down and watch a video put out by al Qaeda senior leadership like -- the names that we recognize, (Ayman al-) Zawahiri. Thirty-two times since 2001 and four times this year alone, senior al Qaeda leadership in recruiting videos have used the prison at Guantanamo Bay as a clarion call to bring extremists from around the world to join their effort." But can you fight "The Crazy" with logic?

blacksnob

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Wednesday December 16, 2009 · 6:31 AM PST

2009/12/16 · 06:31

Gather around your monitors and let New Security Action spin you a tale about a certain prison of ill-repute, Dick Cheney and a horrified Scrooge forced to witness the Ghosts of our "Tortured" past.

blacksnob

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Tuesday December 15, 2009 · 8:59 AM PST

2009/12/15 · 08:59

A group of pro-Gitmo politicians and activists met in New York. They claimed they believed in America, they just didn't believe America was strong enough to handle terrorists. They didn't believe in an America that could successfully bring justice to the victims of 9/11. They didn't believe in the judicial system or the Constitution that backs it. They didn't believe in all the things that make America "America." What do they believe in? Fear. It's all they have. It's what they cling to, and they're not afraid to tear down our institutions just to make their scare-tactics stick

blacksnob

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Monday February 02, 2009 · 1:00 PM PST

2009/02/02 · 13:00

After writing two stories on my Web site, The Black Snob, about the advertising/modeling industry suddenly scratching their heads and having their worlds turned upside down by clients wanting a more "ethnic" look in the kid campaigns due to First Daughter Fever, and reading unadulterated nonsense like, "(T)he First Daughters are tough subjects to match" and "It's a very specific age and a very specific ethnicity, so there aren't that many girls that would necessarily fit the bill, (New York Magazine online)" I can no longer stand idle and say do nothing.

blacksnob

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Sunday August 24, 2008 · 10:00 AM PDT

2008/08/24 · 10:00

When it comes to celebrity, we Americans have an obsession of smashing the names of famous couples together like Bennifer, Billary, Bennifer II, TomKat, Vaughniston, McGosling and of course the robust and insane sounding Brangelina. (My favorite because it sounds like a hearty breakfast cereal.) But when it comes to presidential candidates and their veeps we need to nip this thing in the bud.

Por ejemplo:

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The Politics of Torture and Guantanamo Bay

Enough Fear: Some Common Sense on Gitmo (Video)

Former Gitmo Guard Befriends Ex-Detainees Through Facebook (Video)

Mark Kirk: The Officer of Misinformation on Afghanistan

New York Times Recycles Debunked Gitmo Recidivism Story

Flip-flopping With Jim DeMint

More Crazy Talk On Gitmo

Crazy Vs. Common Sense on Gitmo

Say "Bah Humbug" to Cheney In A Gitmo Christmas Carol (Video)

The "True" Believers On Gitmo

Tell the Industry That Cute, Little Black and Brown Girls Aren't Rare

From Brangelina to O'Biden