RUSH: Now, the left today cannot be in a very good mood. “President Obama acknowledged for the first time [today] that his administration would miss a self-imposed deadline to close the detention center at [Club Gitmo] by mid-January, admitting the difficulties of following through on one of his first pledges as president.” Remember when he went out there and one of his first acts was signing the executive order and explaining how it was all going to happen? He forgot what it was that was going to happen and said, “What are we going to do there, Greg?” Attorney Greg Craig. And Greg Craig took over and explained the executive order.
“In television interviews during his week-long trip to Asia, Mr. Obama said he hoped to shut down the prison facility sometime next year, but he did not set a new deadline. ‘We are on a path and process where I would anticipate that Guantanamo would be closed next year… I’m not going to set an exact date because a lot of this is going to depend on cooperation from Congress.'”
What? I thought you signed an executive order! Congress has nothing to say about executive orders! “Obama ordered the closing of [Gitmo] as one of his first acts as president, but his plans to transfer some of its 200 remaining inmates to other countries or to trial or detention in the United States have been stymied by vocal opposition from Democrats and Republicans in Congress, as well as residents who live close to prisons that could house terrorists.” So either Obama doesn’t care that terrorists are using Gitmo to “recruit more terrorists,” or that was always a lie. Remember one of the things about Club Gitmo: “We gotta shut it down, because it’s a tool for recruiting more terrorists!” I guess they don’t care about that now.
We have, ladies and gentlemen, a timeline montage of Mr. Obama’s statements on closing Gitmo. Going all the way back to June 3rd of 2007. That’s starting point.
OBAMA JUNE 3, 2007: Our legitimacy is reduced when we got a Guantanamo that is open, when we suspend habeas corpus, those kinds of things erode our moral claims that we are acting on behalf of broader universal principles.
OBAMA NOVEMBER 15, 2007: We’re going to lead by shutting down Guantanamo and restoring habeas corpus in this country so that we offer them an example.
OBAMA DECEMBER 13, 2007: We have to stand for human rights. It is harder for us to do it when we have situations like Guantanamo where we’ve suspended habeas corpus. To the extent that we are not being true to our values and our ideals, that sends a negative message to the world.
OBAMA NOVEMBER 16, 2008: I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantanamo, and I will follow through on that. I’ve said repeatedly that America doesn’t torture, and I’m going to make sure that we don’t torture. Those are part and parcel of an effort to regain America’s moral stature in the world.
RUSH: This is always frustrated me, too, because we haven’t suffered any “moral failing” here. Maybe among some elite leftists in Europe, but who gives a crap? Who gives a flying crap? Democrats care about it! Who cares what Hugo Chavez thinks? Obama cares what Hugo Chavez thinks! Anyway, these statements range from June 3rd, 2007, all the way up to November 16th, 2008. They were in debates, 60 Minutes, appearances… So you can hear how important it was (paraphrase): “We — we — we — we really gotta go on and reestablish our values and ideals,” and now we can’t close it. (Gasp!) We’re not going to meet the deadline of January 22nd next year.
And I want to make the point again that it is being said by Obama and his people that one of the reasons for the trial in New York of the terrorists is to show the world that we’ve got our mojo back. We’ve got our human rights back and we’ve got our respect for values and our ideals back… with a rigged trial. The Obama administration, Obama himself, has already claimed these guys are going to be guilty. They’re going to be convicted and they’re going to be put to death. Holder said they’re so clearly guilty they’re going to get the death penalty — and if they don’t, we’re not going to let ’em go anyway. The militant Islamist world is going to look at that as a rigged system! This is going to clean up our image? The ACLU is not going to be happy about this. A lot of people aren’t going to be happy about it, particularly out there on the left.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Belton, Texas, and Bruce, you’re next on the program, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Rush.
RUSH: Hey.
CALLER: Great honor to talk to you.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: I just wanted to bring up the terrorist, Hasan, that shot up Fort Hood.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: And I believe with all his ties to Al-Qaeda and radical mosques and all the websites he was on, I think he would be the perfect candidate for waterboarding, and it’s too bad that Bush and Cheney aren’t around to do that so that maybe we could catch some more bad guys with the information that we could get from him.
RUSH: Well, we don’t do that anymore.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: We don’t do that anymore. The National Security Agency monitors every phone call in this country. Are you aware of that?
CALLER: Oh, Lord. Oh, no.
RUSH: Oh, yeah, and they have just heard you, Bruce in Belton, Texas, advocate torture.
CALLER: Oh, my God!
RUSH: Oh, yeah. And they just heard you wish Bush and Cheney were back.
CALLER: Ohhhh.
RUSH: Ohhh, Bruce, my man. Besides, this terrorist down there, that was just a tragedy according to Eric Holder. From what I’ve heard, he’s probably going to be paralyzed from the waist down as a result of the bullet wounds inflicted on him by the local constabulary down there.
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