Couric, Gibson falsely claim "no member" of Congress offered to take Guantánamo detainees
SUMMARY: Katie Couric and Charlie Gibson both falsely claimed that "no member" of Congress wanted detainees from Guantánamo Bay transferred to prisons in their districts. In fact, at least two have made such an offer.
During the May 20 broadcasts of the CBS Evening News and ABC's World News, anchors Katie Couric and Charlie Gibson, respectively, falsely claimed that "no member" of Congress wanted detainees being held at the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, transferred to prisons in their districts. In fact, as Media Matters for America has noted, at least two congressional representatives have offered to hold detainees from Guantánamo Bay at prisons in their districts.
During the broadcast of the CBS Evening News, Couric stated, "The Senate today followed the House in blocking the president from closing the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay because no member wants any of the detainees there sent to his or her home state or district." Similarly, on World News, Gibson said of the detainees: "No member of Congress wants these guys transferred to prisons in their districts." Chief Washington correspondent George Stephanopoulos responded, "That's right."
In a May 9 op-ed in The Washington Post, Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) offered use of the Albert V. Bryan U.S. Courthouse and Detention Center in Alexandria, Virginia. In the op-ed, Moran noted that "the '20th hijacker,' Zacarias Moussaoui, who participated in planning the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the Pentagon, was held and prosecuted in the Alexandria courthouse" and stated that "should President Obama determine that Alexandria needs to play a reasonably limited role in a nationwide effort to bring justice to the Guantanamo detainees and close this unfortunate chapter of American history, I am confident that Alexandrians will stand strong as they always have."
Rep. Jack Murtha (D-PA) has also said that he is willing to house detainees from Guantánamo Bay at a prison in his district if a maximum security prison were built, according to a January 21 FoxNews.com report:
Rep. Jack Murtha, D-Pa., says he'd be willing to house prisoners from Guantanamo Bay in his congressional district if President Obama makes good on a plan to close the U.S. prison there.
[...]
Murtha only has a minimum security prison in his district. But he says he'd have no reservations about holding detainees there in a maximum security prison.
"Sure, I'd take 'em," said Murtha, an outspoken critic of the Iraq war. "They're no more dangerous in my district than in Guantanamo."
Murtha added that there was "no reason not to put 'em in prisons in the United States and handle them the way they would handle any other prisoners."
Additionally, as the blog Think Progress noted, during a May 20 speech on the Senate floor, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said:
And, yes, we have maximum security prisons in California eminently capable of holding these people as well, and from which people -- trust me -- do not escape. So, I believe that this has really been an exercise in fear-baiting. I hope it's not going to be successful.
On the CBS Evening News, chief White House correspondent Chip Reid aired a portion of Feinstein's floor speech in which she said that the United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Colorado -- the so-called "supermax" prison -- "has 490 beds. They are reserved for the worst of the worst." But Reid did not air her assertion that "maximum security prisons in California" are "eminently capable of holding these people as well."
From the May 20 broadcast of ABC's World News with Charles Gibson:
GIBSON: But, George, what's the problem here? We have, as Jake [Tapper, senior White House correspondent] mentioned and Senator Feinstein said on the Senate floor, we have terrorists in U.S. prisons, so why not the guys from Guantánamo?
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, Charlie, I think this is one of the ultimate NIMBY issues. You're right on that point. On the other hand, the senators have not yet seen a plan. And you've got the FBI director out there saying he's not sure it's going to be safe, either. Senate sources I've talked to today and the administration believe there is a chance they're going to be able to get the Senate to agree to having some detainees come into prisons later this year, once the plan by the president is released. But there is no way they're going to approve release of any prisoners in the United States.
GIBSON: And when you say it's a NIMBY problem, you mean --
STEPHANOPOULOS and GIBSON [in unison]: Not in my back yard.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Absolutely right, Charlie.
GIBSON: No member of Congress wants these guys transferred to prisons in their districts.
STEPHANOPOULOS: That's right.
From the May 20 broadcast of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric:
COURIC: Well, if you're still counting, it happened on Day 121 of the Obama administration, right behind me at the Capitol: the new president's first major legislative defeat. The Senate today followed the House in blocking the president from closing the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay because no member wants any of the detainees there sent to his or her home state or district. The vote in the Senate wasn't even close, 90 to 6.
Chip Reid is at the White House, and Chip, all but six Democrats abandoned the president on this one.
REID: Well, that's right, Katie. Democrats weighed appeals from the president on the one hand against anger from their constituents on the other, and the president lost in a big way.
[...]
REID: The prison houses 240 suspected terrorists. If it's closed, many could be transferred to the U.S., including about 20 high-ranking members of Al Qaeda. But the president's supporters say critics are fearmongering.
SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-IL): The reality is, we are holding some of the most dangerous terrorists in the world right now in our federal prisons.
REID: Like the Supermax Prison in Colorado, which holds, among others, shoe bomber Richard Reid and Al Qaeda member Zacarias Moussaoui.
FEINSTEIN: It has 490 beds. They are reserved for the worst of the worst.
How you ever got a job anchoring a major media new show -- what, Viacom -- oh now I get it.
Do they have super powers, like Magneto? Do people think their compatriots are going to mount a rescue operation? Do they fear that housing these prisoners will make them a target for revenge by other terrorists? (As if the terrorists don't already know that the U.S. is actually in charge of Guantanamo).
I think what we're seeing is the last remnants of post-9/11 hysteria and jingoism that gripped the country and allowed us to be duped into invading Iraq.
Shame on the Democrats for caving in to blind fear and allowing themselves to be manipulated by Republican propaganda.
The Republicans smelled blood and are insinuating there are larger problems than there are within the Democrats. These terror suspects will end up in US jails. Republican Lindsey Graham (much to his credit) made me laugh the other day when it seems he felt it was necessary to mockingly remind all of the bed-wetters out there that these suspects aren't 10 feet tall and that we have housed prisoners like these before.
The Story of Chicken Little:
Narrator: Chicken Little was in the woods one day when an acorn fell on her head. It scared her so much she trembled all over. She shook so hard, half her feathers fell out.
Chicken Little Harry Reid: "Help! Help! The sky is falling! I have to go tell the king!"
Narrator: So she ran in great fright to tell the king. Along the way she met Henny Penny.
Henny Penny Rep. Michele Bachmann: "Where are you going, Chicken Little Sen. Harry Reid?"
Chicken Little Harry Reid: "Oh, help! The sky is falling!"
Henny Penny Rep. Michele Bachmann: "How do you know?"
Chicken Little Harry Reid: "I saw it with my own eyes, and heard it with my own ears, and part of it fell on my head!"
Henny Penny Rep. Michele Bachmann: "This is terrible, just terrible! We'd better hurry up."
Narrator: So they both ran away as fast as they could. Soon they met Ducky Lucky.
Ducky Lucky Sen. Kit Bond: "Where are you going, Chicken Little Sen. Harry Reid and Henny Penny Rep. Michele Bachmann?"
Chicken Little Harry Reid: & Henny Penny Rep. Michele Bachmann: "The sky is falling! The sky is falling! We're going to tell the king!"
Ducky Lucky Sen. Kit Bond: "How do you know?"
Chicken Little Harry Reid: "I saw it with my own eyes, and heard it with my own ears, and part of it fell on my head."
Ducky Lucky Sen. Kit Bond: "Oh dear, oh dear! We'd better run!"
Narrator: So they all ran down the road as fast as they could. Soon they met Goosey Loosey Rudy Giuliani walking down the roadside.
Goosey Loosey Rudy Giuliani: "Hello there. Where are you all going in such a hurry?"
Chicken Little Harry Reid: "We're running for our lives!"
Henny Penny Rep. Michele Bachmann: "The sky is falling!"
Ducky Lucky Sen. Kit Bond: "And we're running to tell the king!"
Goosey Loosey Rudy Giuliani: "How do you know the sky is falling?"
Chicken Little Sen. Harry Reid: "I saw it with my own eyes, and heard it with my own ears, and part of it fell on my head!"
Goosey Loosey Rudy Giuliani: "Goodness! Then I'd better run with you."
Narrator: And they all ran in great fright across a field. Before long they met Turkey Lurkey John Boehner strutting back and forth.
Turkey Lurkey John Boehner: "Hello there, Chicken Little Sen. Harry Reid, Henny Penny Rep. Michele Bachmann, Ducky Lucky Sen. Kit Bond, and Goosey Loosey Rudy Giuliani. Where are you all going in such a hurry?"
Chicken Little Sen. Harry Reid: "Help! Help!"
Henny Penny Rep. Michele Bachmann: "We're running for our lives!"
Ducky Lucky Sen. Kit Bond: "The sky is falling!"
Goosey Loosey Rudy Giuliani: "And we're running to tell the king!"
Turkey Lurkey John Boehner: "How do you know the sky is falling?"
Chicken Little Sen. Harry Reid: "I saw it with my own eyes, and heard it with my own ears, and part of it fell on my head!"
Turkey Lurkey John Boehner: "Oh dear! I always suspected the sky would fall someday. I'd better run with you."
Narrator: So they ran with all their might, until they met Foxy Loxy.
Foxy Loxy Dick Cheney: "Well, well. Where are you rushing on such a fine day?"
Chicken Little Sen. Harry Reid: Henny Penny Rep. Michele Bachmann, Ducky Lucky Sen. Kit Bond, Goosey Loosey Rudy Giuliani, Turkey Lurkey John Boehner (together) "Help! Help!" It's not a fine day at all. The sky is falling, and we're running to tell the king!"
Foxy Loxy Dick Cheney: "How do you know the sky is falling?"
Chicken Little Sen. Harry Reid: "I saw it with my own eyes, and heard it with my own ears, and part of it fell on my head!"
Foxy Loxy Dick Cheney: "I see. Well then, follow me, and I'll show you the way to the king."
Narrator: So Foxy Loxy Dick Cheney led Chicken Little Sen. Harry Reid, Henny Penny Rep. Michele Bachmann, Ducky Lucky Sen. Kit Bond, Goosey Loosey Rudy Giuliani, and Turkey Lurkey John Boehner across a field and through the woods. He led them straight to his den, and they never saw the king to tell him that the sky is falling.
-E. L Easton
The frightened Repubs should first demand to see what worst of the worst crimes these prisoners committed. And to suggest that our prison guards who watch over our own worst of the worst are incapable of handling the other worst of the worst is an insult to our hard working men and women who put their lives on the line daily.
Actually one idiotic Repub Congressmen kept saying that they'd walk the street of your community. It goes back to the real dumbing down of the remaining 20% of the NO Party. These dittoheads still think they run this country.
And the new math of the day....3=none.
The Republicans have mythologized the threat to the point that half the country believes that, if you release one of these prisoners, HE will be the one who manages to sneak a nuke into Grand Central Station and blow up the Country.
It's nonsense, of course, but they've sold it well.
Essentially, the Republicans have resigned themselves to the view that imprisoning 50 innocent men is less evil than letting one guilty man go free.
And they claim to be the party of "morality"?
And if - God forbid! - a prisoner killed a guard at Gitmo, does that mean we would not prosecute that person for murder because the crime did not happen on "US soil?"
By international treaty - ratified by the US Senate and therefore the law of the United States - we can not and should not torture anyone. That is the real problem with bringing suspected terrorists to trial - the truth about their treatment will come out.
And what about the people held at Gitmo for years who didn't do anything?
There it is. All along that was the reason for GITMO. To find a legal blackhole where the law doesnt apply. Where they have NO rights. Should a country that considers itself civilized act that way. Try to find an out where they can have an excuse to eschew the very values that MAKE us a good country? Honor is a gift a man gives himself and the same with a country. It is not without cost or risk. If it were that would be meaningless. If you are willing to toss out your values and honor when it is inconvienient when it involves a risk then you never had either values or honor in the firt place. I think my country is better than that that it is more honorable than that, stronger than that. The LAW MUST BE FOLLOWED in EVERY case. I cant say it better than Sir Thomas Moore in A Man for All Seasons
Arrest him!
-For what?
-He's dangerous!
-Libel. He's a spy!
-That man's bad!
-There's no law against that.
-God's law!
-Then God can arrest him.
-While you talk, he's gone!
Go he should, if he were the Devil,
until he broke the law.
-Now you give the Devil benefit of law!
-Yes, what would you do?
Cut a road through the law
to get after the Devil?
Yes. I'd cut down every law in England
to do that.
And when the last law was down,
and the Devil turned on you...
...where would you hide, Roper,
the laws all being flat?
This country is planted with laws
from coast to coast...
...Man's laws, not God's,
and if you cut them down...
...and you're just the man to do it...
...do you really think you could stand
upright in the wind that would blow then?
Yes.
I give the Devil benefit of law
for my own safety's sake.
Edward R Murrow once said that we are not from timid men and he was right. I think some of todays conservatives would embarass our anscestors
A Man for All Seasons is one of my favorite movies, and it has almost no action... it's just people talking. That's why I think it's so brilliant.
The Republicans seem to be coming from the timid little place where they think we can somehow remove all risk to ourselves and our troops abroad by incarcerating 200 suspects permanently without trial or hearing. No such world exists, no such guarantee can be made.
They vilify Obama for wanting to give these suspects due process, risking the remote possibility that one of them may go free and harm an American soldier some day. Yet, these same people defend George Bush, who needlessly sent our troops over there to become targets in the first place. That thinking defies logic.
This whole controversy is silly and deceptive. Obama and the Democrats can bring the detainees over here anytime and put them anyplace they desire.
Why don't they? After all Obama PROMISED he would do it. He has the power. He controls the federal prisons. He controls the military. Why is he stalling? Why doesn't he keep one of his most vocal campaign promises instead of taking the PR hit?
Ask yourself that before anymore ad nauseam attacks on the Republicans.
Kevin Spacey could play the lead, with Tarantino as Henry and Cheech Marin as Cromwell.
Moran and Rep. Murtha spoke before consulting with the authorities who would make these decisions. I live in Virginia and unless they build one of hose 100 ft. underground Maximum Security Prisons like they have in some states then forget it. Besides these are
FEDERAL PRISONERS who would have no business in a State Correctional Facility.