Dominique,
I will be very surprised if Obama does not move swiftly to begin the process of closing Guantanamo. It was one of his major promises and I think he will do his best to keep it. Even if he signs the order on his first day in office, it will still take a long time before it is actually closed. Those inmates can not simply walk free and no one seems to want them.

Proximity to power seems to have had a sobering effect on Obama. “It is more difficult than I think a lot of people realize” to close Guantanamo, he explained on Sunday, pointing out, correctly, that its resident detainees are actually “very dangerous.” Obama did not miss the import of that admission, specifically that any closure of the facility would have to be so designed that it “doesn’t result in releasing people who are intent on blowing us up.” Until such a plan exists, Guantanamo will stay open.

Left-wing blogs and anti-Guantanamo crusaders will bristle at that conclusion, but it is the only responsible one. The reality of Guantanamo – a reality that leading Democrats and self-styled human rights watchdogs have spent years obscuring – is that it is home to some of the world’s most dangerous Islamists: Chechen jihadists; Afghan mujahedeen and Taliban fighters; al-Qaeda terrorists from across the Middle East and North Africa. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the architect of the USS Cole bombing in 2000, are two of many notorious names on the Guantanamo roll call.

Bloody experience, meanwhile, has illustrated the dangers of releasing these terrorist captives. As of May 2008, the Department of Defense estimated that at least 36 former Guantanamo detainees are “confirmed or suspected” of having returned to the battlefield. One Kuwaiti detainee, freed from Guantanamo in 2005, joined the jihad against American troops shortly thereafter; he was ultimately killed carrying out a suicide bombing in Iraq last May. At long last, it seems, the president-elect has come to realize what he is really dealing with.

True, there is much Obama still doesn’t understand about Guantanamo. He is under the mistaken impression, for instance, that detainees “have not gone through some adjudication,” when in fact all have undergone at least two levels of review, an initial Combatant Status Review Tribunal to determine their status as enemy combatants and an annual review to determine their fitness for release. Likewise, Obama seems unaware that most detainees, so far from being “tortured” into a confession, have volunteered their terrorist affiliations and in some cases have even promised to kill more Americans upon release. But even with these gaps in his understanding, Obama’s newfound reluctance to shutter Guantanamo is a welcome development, suggesting as it does his growing appreciation for the central role that Guantanamo plays in the war on terror and the terribly real dangers posed by its terrorist denizens. ”

I don’t know what happen between the two days, but it looks like Obama is changing his mind on yet another issue.

Here is the link for the whole article as I am sure you will want to read it.

http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=D2477F46-639B-4FC4-B8AB-8014E1E66427

Dominique’s last blog post..PETITION ALERT: Petition to the U.N.calling for an investigation of HAMAS’ treatment of CHILDREN

If someone has information like that, take it to the authorities, and if they don’t act on it, go up the chain. IMHO, our media have caused untold damage to our reputation around the globe.

Please don’t confuse what I’m writing with the fact I don’t support what went on in that prison. Report, but report to someone who can effect a change while not making our country somewhat odious to the rest of the planet. I hope I’ve made sense today.

Ron’s last blog post..Happy Campers at the University of Florida