In a speech at the National Archives on May 21, 2009, President Barack Obama said: ” ‘Rather than keeping us safer, the prison at Guantánamo has weakened American national security. It is a rallying cry for our enemies. It sets back the willingness of our allies to work with us in fighting an enemy that […]
5/21/2009
President Barack Obama recalled his order to close the prison at Guantánamo in a speech at the National Archives on May 21, 2009. He said: ” ‘There is also no question that Guantánamo set back the moral authority that is America’s strongest currency in the world. Instead of building a durable framework for the struggle […]
5/21/2009
President Barack Obama recalled his banning of the use of enhanced interrogation techniques in a speech at the National Archives on May 21, 2009. He said: ” ‘I know some have argued that brutal methods like waterboarding were necessary to keep us safe. I could not disagree more. As Commander-in-Chief, I see the intelligence. I […]
5/21/2009
In a speech to the American Enterprise Institute on May 21, 2009, former Vice President Dick Cheney said, regarding the use of enhanced interrogation techniques: ” ‘For all that we’ve lost in this conflict, the United States has never lost its moral bearings. And when the moral reckoning turns to the men known as high-value […]
5/21/2009
In a speech on May 21, 2009, "President Obama reaffirmed his pledge to follow the 'imperative' of closing Guantanamo within a year, adding that the facility had 'likely created more terrorists around the world than it ever detained.' Indeed, he said, 'By any measure, the costs of keeping it open far exceed the complications involved […]
5/21/2009
In a speech at the American Enterprise Institute on May 21, 2009, former Vice President Dick “Cheney said, ‘In top-secret meetings about enhanced interrogations, I made my own beliefs clear. I was and remain a strong proponent of our enhanced interrogation program.’ “ – Peter Bergen, The Longest War, Page 116 […]
5/21/2009
In an address to the American Enterprise Institute on May 21, 2009, former Vice President Dick "Cheney said that only 'ruthless enemies of this country' were detained by U.S. operatives overseas and taken to secret U.S. prisons. A 2008 McClatchy investigation, however, found that the vast majority of Guantanamo detainees captured in 2001 and 2002 […]
5/21/2009
In an address to the American Enterprise Institute on May 21, 2009, former Vice President Dick Cheney “quoted the Director of National Intelligence, Adm. Dennis Blair, as saying that the information [obtained from enhanced interrogation techniques] gave U.S. officials a ‘deeper understanding of the al Qaida organization that was attacking this country.’ In a statement […]
5/21/2009
“In his [May 21, 2009] address to the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative policy organization in Washington, [Former Vice President Dick] Cheney said that the [enhanced interrogation] techniques the Bush administration approved, including waterboarding—simulated drowning that’s considered a form of torture—forced nakedness and sleep deprivation, were ‘legal’ and produced information that ‘prevented the violent death […]
5/15/2009
“In May 2009 a Pentagon fact sheet about Guantanamo detainees who had been released but had since taken up arms was made public. What dominated news stories about the report was the claim that seventy-four of those released from Guantanamo, or one in seven, had ‘returned to the battlefield.’ “ [The 15th of the month […]