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Obama Admits Freed GITMO Detainees Could Attack Us

Tuesday, February 3, 2009 6 comments

President Obama said he is worried that detainees freed from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay might resume attacks on this country - but argued that its closure had to be done in order to "uphold" what he called "our values."

"Can we guarantee that they're not going to try to participate in another attack? No," Obama said in an NBC interview that aired today.

"But what I can guarantee is that if we don't uphold our Constitution and our values, that over time that will make us less safe. And that will be a recruitment tool for organizations like al-Qaeda."

In one of the first acts of his new administration, Obama signed an executive order directing that Guantanamo be closed within a year.

Some 250 terrorists are being held there - many of them detained following the Sept. 11 attacks without charge and some subjected to interrogation that human rights groups say amounted to torture.

But critics fear some of the detainees may again plot to attack the US once they are released.

"Is it going to be easy?" Obama said in the interview. "No, because we've got a couple hundred of hard-core militants that, unfortunately, because of ... problems that we had previously in gathering evidence, we may not be able to try in ordinary courts but we don't want to release."

Obama also expressed confidence that his administration would ultimately find a solution balancing security and US legal values.

"I have to make the very best judgments I can make in terms of what's going to keep the American people safe and ... what's going to uphold our Constitution and our traditions of due process," he said. "And what I'm convinced of is [that] we can balance those interests in a way that makes all of us proud, but also assures that we're not attacked."

February 2, 2009
NY Post Article

6 comments: to “ Obama Admits Freed GITMO Detainees Could Attack Us so far...

  • Anonymous February 4, 2009 at 4:54 AM
     

    We will be quite fortunate, indeed, if this 'leftist' doesn't get us all killed.

  • Ted February 4, 2009 at 8:13 AM
     

    The Joint Chiefs of Staff HAVE AN ABSOLUTE CONSTITUTIONAL DUTY to stand behind Guantanamo Military Judge James Pohl UNTIL OBAMA OVERCOMES “RES IPSA LOQUITUR” BY SUPPLYING HIS LONG FORM BIRTH CERTIFICATE AND PROVING HIS ELIGIBILITY TO BE PRESIDENT UNDER ARTICLE 2 OF THE US CONSTITUTION.

  • Mike February 4, 2009 at 8:31 AM
     

    Says the man who will continue to allow renditions!!!

    The barber and I were talking about this last night. He was horrified when I said that most of these guys will now be trading a comfortable stay in Cuba for a one-way ticket to a Syrian prison...

  • Mike February 4, 2009 at 8:32 AM
     

    Guantanamo Bay is like a 5 star Hilton compared to where Obama's future rendition orders will take them...

  • Anonymous February 4, 2009 at 11:57 AM
     

    If they get into our prison system in the U.S. they will have opportunity to be seen as heroes to many disenfranchised young criminals who have a hatred for themselves and this country.

    They will be able to make new recruits. More enemies of the West.

    Nice job, Obama and the naive left wing Democratic loonies!

  • Layneh February 5, 2009 at 8:19 AM
     

    I just wrote a post on this, this week. There has already been 1 who has made an attack, just not on America.

    There have been 11 that have left Saudis who were released from U.S. detention in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and then passed through a Saudi rehabilitation program for former jihadists are now believed to have fled the country and joined terrorist groups abroad.

 
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