Gitmo Is All About Politics

Kristen Breitweiser was one of the infamous Jersey Girls that pressured Congress to form the 9/11 Commission. Breitweiser writes about how President Obama invited 9/11 families to the White House and promised to close Guantanamo Bay.

For the past two years, it's been President Obama in the Oval Office. Quite early on in his presidency, Obama invited the 9/11 families to the White House to discuss 9/11-related issues. During this meeting in Feb '09 the topic of closing Guantanamo and the use of Article 3 courts to prosecute the remaining alleged 9/11 conspirators was discussed. Many of us were incredibly relieved to learn that as a matter of course President Obama was going to shut down Guantanamo and support the open prosecution of the alleged 9/11 conspirators. He gave us -- the varies widows and children at the meeting -- his golden word. He shook our hands. He smiled broadly. He posed for pictures. (In fact, several weeks later many of the widows received hand signed courtesy copies of these photos from Obama -- a nice touch. I did not receive such a photo.)

Obama's "golden word" isn't worth much. The Justice Department announced that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be tried in a military tribunal at Guantanamo. In Obama's defense, Congress refused to fund the transfer of detainees to the United States. Slate columnist Dahlia Lithwick knocks the blame Republican defense aside.

Say what you will about how Congress forced Obama's hand today by making it all but impossible to try the 9/11 conspirators in regular Article III courts. The only lesson learned is that Obama's hand can be forced. That there is no principle he can't be bullied into abandoning. In the future, when seeking to pass laws that treat different people differently for purely political reasons, Congress needs only fear-monger and fabricate to get the president to cave. Nobody claims that this was a legal decision. It was a political triumph or loss, depending on your viewpoint. The rule of law is an afterthought, either way.

Obama's and the Republican Party's legal stance makes sense when viewed through the prism of politics. Republicans could play to the base by keeping detainees at Gitmo. Obama needed the base in 2008 and had to campaign against Bush's unpopular detainee torture and secret prison policies. Once Obama got elected he could forget about the detainees issue after Republicans shot it down in Congress. Obama wasn't about to spend political capital defending the rights of the very guilty Khalid Sheik Mohammed. Republicans were spared from having to defend torture. Everyone wins. Except the rule of law.

Douchebag of the Day: Neil Cavuto

Michelle Obama was giving a moving speech on the passengers of United 93. Obama was about to tell the audience about the moment the passengers took action against the hijackers. Fox News was not about to allow Michelle Obama have a momerable television moment on their network. Neil Cavuto cut in during the crucial moment of Obama's speech. Cavuto described Obama's husband as "a nobody" when the 9-11 attacks occurred. Fox News never fails to disgust me.

My Giuliani Blogging Addiction

I blog about Rudy Giuliani any chance I get. The man is comedy gold. Giuliani could pass for Bilbo Baggins. The fact that a crossdressing New Yorker with former gay roommates and an adultery problem thought he could get the GOP nomination is hysterical. The other great thing about Giuliani is he says the craziest bullshit that literally gets him laughed out of the room.

Giuliani claimed China would soon drill for oil off the coast of Florida. Sen. Mel Martinez quickly debunked that b.s. on the Senate floor. Giuliani also claimed, during his U.S. Attorney days, he used "intensive questioning techniques" (torture) to get information out of mobsters. Lindsay Beyerstein asked the New York Police Department and Justice Department about Giuliani's "intensive questioning techniques" claim. A former Justice Department official told Beyerstein Giuliani's statement was bogus. NYPD spokesman Reginald Watkins said, "It goes without saying, you can not touch someone to get them to tell you about a crime."

Giuliani tops himself with his latest piece of crazy. In his attempt to attack President Obama for being soft on terrorism, Giuliani said there were no terrorist attacks under President Bush's watch.

Giuliani: We had no domestic attacks under Bush. We had one under Obama.

Giuliani's entire campaign was based on repating the numbers "9" and "11." The fact that he forget a terrorist attack in a city that he was Mayor proves he is not fit for the White House. However, Giuliani would make a great guest host for the Colbert Report.

Partygirl's 9-11 Entries

Psrtygirl wrote about the search for a missing friend after the attacks on the World Trade Center. Her entries on the day and aftermath of attacks quickly spread across the internet. These post are the best and most heartbreaking writing by a blogger. There is no faux politics. Only a young woman searching for her friends and attempting to make sense of the madness.

Go sign Partygirl's guestbook and give her your best wishes.

Today is the Day

Partygirl writes about her experiences living in New York City during and after 9/11. It's best to read Partygirl's first entry from that that and go forward. She is my hero.

Broken Record Cheney

It doesn't matter how many commissions and reports say otherwise. Dick Cheney will continue to link Iraq to September 11th.

"This long-term struggle became urgent on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 . That day we clearly saw that dangers can gather far from our own shores and find us right there at home," said Cheney, who was accompanied by his wife, Lynne, and their daughter, Elizabeth.

"So the United States made a decision: to hunt down the evil of terrorism and kill it where it grows, to hold the supporters of terror to account and to confront regimes that harbor terrorists and threaten the peace," Cheney said. "Understanding all the dangers of this new era, we have no intention of abandoning our friends or allowing this country of 170,000 square miles to become a staging area for further attacks against Americans."

Cheney is both politically oportunistic and cowardly. He will use the 9-11 tragedy to make the bogus case for the Iraq war. Cheney had the chutzpah to blame the media for implying that he suggested there was a connection.

Reiterating the distinction between contacts and actual collaboration on the Sept. 11 attacks, Cheney said some news media had blurred that distinction and reported the administration was directly tying the attacks to Saddam.

"The press is, with all due respect there are exceptions, often times lazy, often simply reports what someone else in the press says without doing their homework," Cheney said.

Later in the interview, Cheney proceeded to link al-Qaida with Saddam Hussein. What a sad excuse for a public official.

Update: this golden oldie from Cheney is worth replaying.

"He's had years to get good at it and we know he has been absolutely devoted to trying to acquire nuclear weapons. And we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons," Cheney said.

Quote of the Day

This is the lamest excuse I heard a candidate use to justify his political position. Rudy Giuliani said 9-11 changed everything on (drum roll please) gun control.

"I also think that there have been subsequent intervening events — September 11 — which cast somewhat of a different light on the Second Amendment and Second Amendment rights. It doesn't change the fundamental rights, but maybe it highlights the necessity for them more."

Giuliani is incapable of admitting he flip-flopped on gun control. He would rather evoke 9-11 to pander to a crowd of NRA supporters. Giuliani is concerned his previous anti-gun stance will hurt him with the base.

Giuliani on March 2, 1997

And thanks in part to our stricter gun control laws, crime is down dramatically in New York City. Shootings are down over 50 percent. Murder is down over 50 percent. But the fact is that 90 percent of the guns we take out of the hands of criminals in New York City come from out of the State of New York.

Someone hand this man his NRA membership card.

The Dust of Ground Zero

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani claimed, "I was at ground zero as often, if not more, than most of the workers. I was there working with them. I was there guiding things. I was there bringing people there. But I was exposed to exactly the same things they were exposed to. So in that sense, I'm one of them." According to the New York Times, Giuliani spent only 29 total hours at Ground Zero. Records of the first six day from September 11th to 16th are not available.



What is most disturbing about Giuliani's statement is how condescending it is to workers whom were on site every day. Former pollice officer Richard Volpe is suffering from kidney failure. His partner John Walcott has been diagnosed with leukemia. His doctors believe it is related to exposure from dust. Over 600 firefighters have taken early retirement because of respiratory-related illnesses. 10,000 New Yorkers are part of a class action suit against the city.



Dust from the World Trade Center covered Manhattan for miles. Giuliani tooked celebrities, such as Oprah Winfrey, to tour Ground Zero. He could see that the workers were not wearing the proper safety gear. Why didn't he get on television and raise hell to have the federal goverment provide masks? He could have used his popularity and 9-11 to get workers the proper safety equipment.

"Everyone on that site should have been fit-tested and wearing a respirator," Dr. Jacqueline Moline said, "and if they could not wear it 100 percent of the time, they should have been wearing it 95 percent of the time."

The Pentagon has not had the same level of illnesses. Workers were only allowed to work on site with the proper safety equipment. Why Ground Zero clean-up and reconstruction didn't operate under the same guidelines is a question that needs to be addressed? Unfortunately, America's Mayor isn't pressing for an answer.

Giuliani vs. Rescue Workers

Rudy Giuliani has a huge ego to claim he was at Ground Zero more than many rescue workers.

"This is not a mayor or a governor or a president who's sitting in an ivory tower," he said. "I was at ground zero as often, if not more, than most of the workers. I was there working with them. I was there guiding things. I was there bringing people there. But I was exposed to exactly the same things they were exposed to. So in that sense, I'm one of them."

Rescue workers are having a problem with Giuliani's statement.

And Battalion Chief John McDonnell, head of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association in New York, added: "I have a real problem with that statement. I think he's really grasping and trying to justify his previous attempts to portray himself as the hero of 9/11."

This could become a bigger problem for Giuliani.