Washington Times

 Both Osama and Obama both criticized Guantanamo and now KSM will use it in his defense arguments

The five terrorists facing federal trial in New York have some powerful arguments at their disposal. All they need to do is recycle Democratic talking points criticizing President George W. Bush’s foreign policy.

Defense attorney Scott Fenstermaker, who is representing Khalid Shaikh Mohammed’s nephew Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, said the accused terrorists would make the case about "their assessment of American foreign policy," adding, "Their assessment is negative." The current administration shares the same assessment; President Obama’s foreign policy has been a conscious and smug rejection of the policies of his predecessor.

Mr. Obama made great theater of ordering the closure of the U.S. terrorist detainee facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in his first days in office. The so- called "American Gulag" had become a centerpiece of the Democratic critique of the Bush administration’s conduct of the war on terrorism. In this respect, the Democrats echoed what Osama bin Laden had been saying for years. In his November 2002 "Letter to America," the al Qaeda leader stated that "what happens in Guantanamo is a historical embarrassment to America and its values, and it screams into your faces – you hypocrites. …"

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Newsmax

Terrorist Relaxes at Gitmo

The White House’s national security adviser says the Obama administration is hard at work on fulfilling President Barack Obama’s deadline to shut down the Guantanamo detention center for suspected terrorists.

But James Jones also says that meeting Obama’s deadline to close the facility by Jan. 22 is proving harder than officials first thought.

Jones says it’s clear that Guantanamo must close, because of the symbol it’s come to represent.

Jones says Obama has made a commitment to close it and the adviser says he still hopes the administration can meet that deadline.

Senior administration officials have told The Associated Press that difficulties in completing the lengthy review of detainee files and resolving other tough questions mean the president’s promised January deadline may slip.

Jones spoke on CNN’s "State of the Union."

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By Eric Allie Cagle Cartoons

By Jane Sutton, Reuters

Obama is preparing to shut it down by releasing terrorists right and left

An Obama administration task force has so far cleared 75 of the remaining 223 Guantanamo prisoners for release as part of its effort to close the detention camp, a military spokesman said on Monday.

The review team is examining each prisoner’s case to decide who will be held for trial and who can be sent home or resettled in other nations.

President Barack Obama had set a January 22 deadline to shut the detention camp although Defense Secretary Robert Gates told ABC News in an interview broadcast on Sunday that "it’s going to be tough" to meet the deadline.

As the review team makes its decisions, military officials at Guantanamo post an updated list in the camps to let the prisoners know how many from each nation have been judged free to go.

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ABC News

Obama sends Alla Ali Bin Ali Ahmed home to Al-Qaeda haven Yemen

The Department of Justice Saturday evening announced that two detainees had been transferred from Guantanamo Bay to Ireland, and one had been transferred to Yemen.

There are more than 220 detainees remaining at the prison. In the last couple months, the White House has made it increasingly clear that the President will not make his self-stated January 22, 2010 deadline to close to prison.

Alla Ali Bin Ali Ahmed, a native of Yemen, was captured in Pakistan in 2002 and returned to Yemen today. The Yemeni Embassy to the US issued a statement saying the country welcomed, "with enthusiasm, the release and transfer of its citizen."

The Obama administration did not name the detainees released to Ireland. "Pursuant to a request from the government of Ireland, the identities of these detainees are being withheld for security and privacy reasons," read a statement from the Justice Department. Amnesty International has been lobbying Ireland to accept Uzbek national Oybek Jamoldinivich Jabbarov, and another Uzbekh.

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NewsMax

The Obama administration plans to issue new guidelines meant to provide prisoners at a U.S. detention center in Afghanistan greater latitude in challenging their detention, The New York Times reported in its Sunday edition.

Citing Pentagon officials and advocates for detainees at the U.S.-run prison at Bagram Air Base, the newspaper said each of the approximately 600 detainees would be assigned a U.S. military official who would have the authority to look for evidence, including witnesses and classified material, for any detainee challenging his detention.

The challenges would be heard by a military-appointed review board, the Times said.

The new policies are expected to be announced as early as this week, after congressional review, the paper reported, but it was unclear how quickly they could be implemented.

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By Associated Press

Gitmo terrorists may soon live in your town

A White House spokesman says the Obama administration hasn’t decided whether or not to release Guantanamo Bay detainees in the United States.

Spokesman Robert Gibbs said President Barack Obama has made clear “we’re not going to make any decision about transfer or release that threatens the security of this country.”

Asked if that meant he was ruling out releasing any detainees in the United States, Gibbs said: “I’m not ruling it in or ruling it out.”

A tentative plan to release some Guantanamo detainees in the United States drew fierce opposition from Republicans and many Democrats in Congress, forcing the Obama administration to shelve the plan to bring some Chinese Muslims known as Uighurs to Virginia. The Uighur detainees at Guantanamo were found not to be enemy combatants by the Pentagon, but few nations have been willing to accept them, out of fear of angering China.

This past week, four of the 17 Uighurs being held at Guantanamo were sent to Bermuda, and the Pacific islands nation of Palau said it would accept others.

Gibbs told reporters progress has been made this week in the administration’s goal of closing the detention center in Cuba by early next year.

Seven detainees have been shipped out of Guantanamo so far this week.

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By Edwin Mora, CNS News

These terrorists could soon be free in America

Conservative and liberal legal experts are divided over whether President Obama has the authority to keep a promise he made that after he closes  the prison at Guantanamo Bay and brings it detainees the United States no dangerous prisoners will ever be released.

A conservative legal expert told CNSNews.com that it will be up to the courts–not Obama — to keep such individuals imprisoned after Obama has brought into the United States. But a liberal expert said the president will have the unilateral authority to keep individuals in custody regardless of what the courts decide.

The president made the pledge not to release any dangerous prisoners now at Guantanamo in a May 21 message at the National Archives. 

“We are not going to release anyone if it would endanger our national security, nor will we release detainees within the United States who endanger the American people,” Obama said. 

“Where demanded by justice and national security, we will seek to transfer some detainees to the same type of facilities in which we hold all manner of dangerous and violent criminals within our borders,” he added.

The president described the prisons most suitable for housing Gitmo detainees as “highly secure prisons that ensure the public safety.”

By Sen. James Inhofe, The Washington Times

Guantanamo Bay is the best home for terrorists

Stay the course on closing the facilities. Less than 24 hours after the Senate overwhelmingly rejected the president’s request for funds to shut down Gitmo – mainly because the administration had no plan – Mr. Obama made clear he intends to continue down his chosen path.

Never mind that FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III said in a Senate hearing last Wednesday that moving detainees to American prisons would bring risks, including “the potential for individuals undertaking attacks in the United States,” or that the media report that an unreleased Pentagon report shows 1 in 7 of the 534 detainees released from Gitmo have returned to terrorism or militant activity, resulting in a nearly 14 percent recidivism rate.

The fact is that Mr. Obama never had a plan for what to do with these detainees – where they would be held, the security required, the cost of moving and housing the detainees at other facilities, the legal system under which they would be held and tried, and the impact on our national security. The president made a “hasty” decision, as White House press secretary Robert Gibbs has made clear, to close this facility without any regard to the national-security implications.

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by Jennifer Rubin, Pajamas Media

Obama offered no plan and Cheney won last week's debate

The Obama administration had the sort of week they’d rather see disappear down the memory hole. But unfortunately for the president, the trouble may just be beginning.

First, on the economic front the notion that we are going to bounce back soon from the recession is proving to be a pipe dream. The CBO predicted double-digit unemployment continuing to rise into 2010. Rasmussen reported:

The Rasmussen Investor Index dropped 15 points on Friday, the largest single day decline ever recorded in its seven-year history. The drop caps a week of extreme volatility for the Index and now shows investor confidence at the lowest level in two months.

The culprit — both for the volatility and the current low level of confidence — is shifting perceptions on where the economy is heading next. Today, just 24% of investors say the economy is getting better while 47% say it is getting worse. A couple of days ago, the outlook was much less pessimistic: 34% better and 40% worse.

And the every-growing mound of debt is triggering concern among purchasers of U.S. debt.