Guantanamo Quotes

• ...the facility at Guantanamo Bay is necessary to national security.

  Jeff Miller

  National Security, Guantanamo Bay, Facility

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• Since January 2002, when the United States began detaining at Guantanamo Bay enemy combatants captured in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other fronts in the war on terror, critics have complained of human rights abuses.

  Linda Chavez

  War, Iraq, Rights

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• Guantanamo Bay houses enemy combatants ranging from terrorist trainers and recruiters to bomb makers, would-be suicide bombers, and terrorist financiers.

  Chris Chocola

  Suicide, House, Enemy

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• Many of the vicious criminals held there have been caught on the battlefield fighting against American troops and shutting down Guantanamo Bay would just require the military to move them elsewhere.

  Bill Shuster

  Military, Moving, Fighting

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• With the NDAA, his failure to close Guantanamo Bay and the ramping use of drones, President Obama looks suspiciously like President Bush, a man on a quest for American Empire.

  Justin Sane

  Men, President, Drones

  "Anti-flag's general strike is a soundtrack for occupied America" by Scott Thill, www.wired.com. March 29, 2012.

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• If people around the world knew how well people at Guantanamo Bay are treating prisoners, they would not fall prey to the accusations that some in our Chamber are making. They are all receiving judicial review.

  Robin Hayes

  Fall, People, Judicial Review

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• What has happened at Guantanamo Bay... does not represent the will of the American people. I'm embarrassed about it, I think its wrong. I think it does give terrorists an unwarranted excuse to use the despicable means to hurt innocent people.

  Jimmy Carter

  Hurt, Mean, Thinking

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• I think what's going on in Guantanamo Bay and other places is a disgrace to the U.S.A. I wouldn't say it's the cause of terrorism, but it has given impetus and excuses to potential terrorists to lash out at our country and justify their despicable acts.

  Jimmy Carter

  Country, Thinking, Confusion

  "Carter: Iraq War is 'Unjust'". www.foxnews.com. July 30, 2005.

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• It's true that I have not been able to completely close Guantanamo, but we've drastically reduced the population from 700 or so to around 60 now.

  Barack Obama

  Population, Able

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• I met Muslim immigrants in Brooklyn who were swept up in 9-11 raids, held in abusive conditions, beaten, denied rights. That's how things started in Germany. Guantanamo was modeled after what Stalin developed for the Gulag.

  Naomi Wolf

  Rights, Germany, Brooklyn

  "Naomi Wolf Thinks the Tea Parties Help Fight Fascism -- Is She Onto Something or in Fantasy Land?". Interview with Justine Sharrock, www.alternet.org. March 29, 2010.

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• Guantanamo allows us to secure dangerous detainees without the risk of escape, while at the same time providing us with valuable intelligence information on how best to proceed in the war against terror and prevent future attacks.

  Jim Ryun

  War, Risk, Information

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• Closing the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is a promise President [Barack] Obama made it but has yet to fulfill.

  Audie Cornish

  Promise, President, Cuba

  Source: www.npr.org

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• If anyone has it rough at Guantanamo, it is the guards. They are constantly harassed and threatened by some of these terrorists. Prisoners tell guards, we know where your families are. We know where your wife is, your children, and we are going to kill them.

  Robin Hayes

  Children, Wife, Terrorist

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• Should we have border security there? Yes. But the idea of the United States erecting a wall for the world to see makes a lie of everything we say about ourselves. It's a little bit like why the President [Barack Obama] and I feel so strongly about closing Guantanamo. It is inconsistent with who we are.

  Joe Biden

  Wall, Lying, Ideas

  Interview with Rachel Maddow, www.msnbc.com. February 18, 2016.

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• Shouldn't the American leadership be addressing what is happening in America, with its domestic policies on racism, discrimination, illegal monitoring, solitary confinement, torture, Guantanamo Bay and any other social and political issues related to the American society not directly connected to Islam? American Muslims must speak out and be involved as well in international policies and, through their institutions, they should raise their voice. This is the way you serve the community.

  Tariq Ramadan

  Voice, America, Issues

  "Tariq Ramadan: My Absence Would Certainly Be The Most Powerful Speech I Have Ever Given At ISNA". Interview with Amina Chaudary, www.theislamicmonthly.com. August 14, 2014.

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• In the United States, rising esteem for the military in uniform corresponds to the growing militarization of the society as a whole. All of this despite repeated revelations of the illegality and immorality of the military's own incarceration systems, from Guantanamo to Abu Ghraib, whose systematic practices border on if not actually constitute torture.

  Michael Hardt

  Military, Practice, United States

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• Europe was not as outraged by Auschwitz as by Guantanamo Bay.

  Tom Lantos

  Europe, Auschwitz, Guantanamo Bay

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• Guantanamo has become the gulag of our time.

  Irene Khan

  Gulags, Our Time

  "Guantanamo the 'gulag of our time'". Irene Khan's speech at the news conference during the celebration of the publication of Amnesty's annual report, www.denverpost.com. May 25, 2005.

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• The military is trying very hard right now to put a better face on Guantanamo, and I think they actually have tried to rid some of the extreme versions of abuse that we have read about.

  Jane Mayer

  Military, Thinking, Abuse

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• I was most impressed with the professionalism of our soldiers stationed there, and I am now more confident than ever that that the operations at Guantanamo are being conducted in a humane and necessary manner.

  Jim Ryun

  Soldier, Professionalism, Operations

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• What makes Bush different from Hitler? He commits crimes in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib prisons. With all these crimes, they still behave like bullying claimants. They get angry once they see an independant nation.

  Ali Khamenei

  Bullying, Different, Abu Ghraib

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• One recent menu for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo consisted of orange glazed chicken, fresh fruit crepe, steamed peas and mushrooms, and rice pilaf. Sounds like the sort of thing you'd get at Windows on the World - if it still existed.

  Ann Coulter

  Mushrooms, Orange, Sound

  Ann Coulter (2007). “If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans”, p.121, Crown Forum

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• I think the government should be spying on all Arabs, engaging in torture as a televised spectator sport, dropping daisy cutters wantonly throughout the Middle East and sending liberals to Guantanamo.

  Ann Coulter

  Sports, Thinking, Government

  Ann Coulter (2007). “If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans”, p.266, Crown Forum

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• We'll review President Obama's plan [on closing Guantanamo], but since it includes bringing dangerous terrorists to facilities in U.S. communities, he should know that the bipartisan will of Congress has already been expressed against that proposal.

  Audie Cornish

  Community, President, Proposal

  Source: www.npr.org

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• If we capture any of these ISIS killers alive, they are going to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and we're going to find out everything they know, because when I'm president, unlike Barack Obama, we will keep this country safe.

  Marco Rubio

  Country, Isis, President

  Marco Rubio's speech at the main Republican Presidential debate hosted by Fox News and Google the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines, www.nytimes.com. January 28, 2016.

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