Roy Blunt will continue supporting Obama's policy's and spending habits, America
Roy Blunt, United States Senator, Supports Obama’s Policies and will Continue Endless Wars–saying he will spend spend spend apparently on unlimited warmaking
It looks like Bush’s old House lapdog, Roy Blunt, is now jumping on the bandwagon to support prosecution of Wikileaks personnel and endless spending on a war that is Endless–the Endless War on Terror.
In short, Roy Blunt will not cut a dime from the DOD or NSA budget, Missourians. He is a spend spend half-way Pro-Obama Republican this 2011.–KAS
Dear Mr. Stoda,
Thank you for your thoughts on whistleblowers in intelligence agencies.
In a post-September 11th era, the United States faces an enemy unlike any other. The U.S. has a renewed focus on policies that protect Americans from threats to our national security while guarding fundamental civil liberties. Every day the brave men and women of our law enforcement agencies, along with our intelligence community and Armed Forces, work to protect us from the various threats posed by modern day terrorism.
One of Congress’ most important jobs will be to ensure that both civilian and government information networks are secure from our enemies, both foreign and domestic. Although transparency is critical to a representative and responsible government, unauthorized disclosures of sensitive information give an advantage to our enemies. This ultimately benefits those who wish to harm the U.S. and our allies.
Laws protecting whistleblowers are an important way to ensure that government officials cannot intimidate subordinates into covering up corrupt or illegal acts. But I have no sympathy for anyone in the national security community who puts American troops or law enforcement officials at risk by revealing classified information or sources. These activities are themselves illegal and damage our national security. As this and other issues affecting our national security and safety arise, I will be sure to keep your thoughts in mind.
Again, thank you for contacting me. I look forward to continuing our conversation on Facebook (www.facebook.com/SenatorBlunt) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/RoyBlunt) about the important issues facing Missouri and the country. I also encourage you to visit my website (blunt.senate.gov) to learn more about where I stand on the issues and sign-up for my e-newsletter.
Sincere regards,
Roy Blunt
United States Senator
It looks like Bush’s old House lapdog, Roy Blunt, is now jumping on the bandwagon to support prosecution of Wikileaks personnel and endless spending on a war that is Endless–the Endless War on Terror.
In short, Roy Blunt will not cut a dime from the DOD or NSA budget, Missourians. He is a spend spend half-way Pro-Obama Republican this 2011.–KAS
Dear Mr. Stoda,
Thank you for your thoughts on whistleblowers in intelligence agencies.
In a post-September 11th era, the United States faces an enemy unlike any other. The U.S. has a renewed focus on policies that protect Americans from threats to our national security while guarding fundamental civil liberties. Every day the brave men and women of our law enforcement agencies, along with our intelligence community and Armed Forces, work to protect us from the various threats posed by modern day terrorism.
One of Congress’ most important jobs will be to ensure that both civilian and government information networks are secure from our enemies, both foreign and domestic. Although transparency is critical to a representative and responsible government, unauthorized disclosures of sensitive information give an advantage to our enemies. This ultimately benefits those who wish to harm the U.S. and our allies.
Laws protecting whistleblowers are an important way to ensure that government officials cannot intimidate subordinates into covering up corrupt or illegal acts. But I have no sympathy for anyone in the national security community who puts American troops or law enforcement officials at risk by revealing classified information or sources. These activities are themselves illegal and damage our national security. As this and other issues affecting our national security and safety arise, I will be sure to keep your thoughts in mind.
Again, thank you for contacting me. I look forward to continuing our conversation on Facebook (www.facebook.com/SenatorBlunt) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/RoyBlunt) about the important issues facing Missouri and the country. I also encourage you to visit my website (blunt.senate.gov) to learn more about where I stand on the issues and sign-up for my e-newsletter.
Sincere regards,
Roy Blunt
United States Senator
posted by Kevin Anthony Stoda at 1:57 PM
2 Comments:
GUANTANAMO BAY
FAILING TO CLOSE GITMO: Just three years ago, closing the Guantanamo Bay prison had broad bipartisan support. While Obama campaigned on closing Gitmo, even Republicans, including President Bush and Obama's opponent, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), agreed. But Attorney General Eric Holder's recent announcement that alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed would be tried in a military tribunal instead of a civilian court all but ended any hopes that the prison would be closed anytime soon. Yet, as the Washington Post chronicled last weekend, "For more than two years, the White House's plans had been undermined by political miscalculations, confusion and timidity in the face of mounting congressional opposition." Who's fault is it that Gitmo is still open? While Democrats in Congress largely abandoned the President, the White House didn't exactly put a lot of political capital on the line either. As former White House counsel Greg Craig noted, "There was a real serious problem of coordination in this whole thing." Indeed, the administration had planned to transfer some uncontroversial detainees to Northern Virginia but abandoned the move at the last hour after Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) discovered that Gitmo detainees would be moving to his district. The White House never cleared their plan with Wolf. Since then, as Obama noted last year, Gitmo has "been subject to a lot of...pretty rank politics." And as "Not In My Backyard" cries from members of Congress intensified, the legislative branch eventually cut off funds to close Gitmo and approved a measure to bar any detainees from being relocated to the United States.
The Neverending Story
Yesterday, the New York Times and other news outlets reported on a "trove of more than 700 classified military documents" that provide "new and detailed accounts of the men who have done time at the Guantánamo Bay prison in Cuba, and offers new insight into the evidence against the 172 men still locked up there." The documents were obtained by the open government website WikiLeaks but obtained by the Times through another source. The documents reveal details about detainee behavior and treatment, but are "silent about the use of the harsh interrogation tactics at Guantánamo -- including sleep deprivation, shackling in stress positions and prolonged exposure to cold temperatures -- that drew global condemnation."
THE DETAILS: The Times editorializes today that the documents serve as "a chilling reminder of the legal and moral disaster that President George W. Bush created" at Gitmo and "describe the chaos, lawlessness and incompetence in his administration's system for deciding detainees' guilt or innocence and assessing whether they would be a threat if released." "Innocent men were picked up on the basis of scant or nonexistent evidence and subjected to lengthy detention and often to abuse and torture," the Times editorial notes, adding that suicides there "were regarded only as a public relations problem.& quot; The documents show that there were 158 detainees "who did not receive a formal hearing under a system instituted in 2004. Many were assessed to be 'of little intelligence value' with no ties to or significant knowledge about Al Qaeda or the Taliban." The Guardian notes that 212 Afghans at Gitmo were either "entirely innocent," "mere Taliban conscripts" or "had been transferred to Guantanamo with no reason for doing so." Among inmates who proved harmless were an 89-year-old Afghan villager, suffering from senile dementia, and a 14-year-old boy who had been an innocent kidnap victim. The so-called 20th 9/11 hijacker, Mohammed Qahtani, "was leashed like a dog, sexually humiliated and forced to urinate on himself." And U.S. forces held Sami al-Hajj, a Sudanese cameraman for Al-Jazeera, for 6 years before finally letting him go. Hajj had insisted he was just a journalist and he went back to work for Al-Jazeera after his release.
DOUBLE GUANTANAMO?: The idea of Guantanamo has become so toxic internationally that even military leaders such as Gen. David Petraeus want it shut down. "Gitmo has caused us problems, there's no question about it," Petraeus said in 2009, adding, "I oversee a region in which the existence of Gitmo has indeed been used by the enemy against us." Yet at the same time, others sing Guantanamo's praises. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (R), who will likely run for president next year, said in his last campaign for the White House that the prison needs to be expanded, not closed. "I want them on Guantanamo, where they don't get the access to lawyers they get when they're on our soil. I don't want them in our prisons, I want them there," Romney said during a 2007 presidential debate. "Some people have said we ought to close Guantanamo. My view is we ought to double Guantanamo," he later added.
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