Guantanamo Quotes - Page 2

• When we remember presidents who didn't fulfill their promises - for instance George H.W. Bush saying no new taxes or Barack Obama saying he would close the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay - we remember those because they're the exceptions, not the rule.

  Evan Osnos

  Promise, President, Saying No

  Source: www.npr.org

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• There had been a free and open election in Haiti in the early 1990s and president Jean-Bertrand Aristide won, a populist priest. A few months later came the expected military coup - a very vicious military junta took over, of which the United States was passively supportive. Not openly, of course, but Haitians started to flee from the terror and were sent back and on towards Guantanamo Bay. Of course, that is against International Law. But the United States pretended that they were "economic refugees."

  Noam Chomsky

  Military, Law, President

  Source: thehumanist.com

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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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• 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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• 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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• Each department and institution has its own authorities and responsibilities, and they act on that basis. It is wrong to even compare such actions to what is done in Guantanamo or elsewhere by the Americans. They do not stand on a high moral platform to preach to others.

  Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani

  Responsibility, Done, Action

  "Iran's ex-president: U.S should show goodwill". Interview with Barbara Slavin, usatoday30.usatoday.com. February 6, 2005.

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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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• 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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• 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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• This crazy ban on the seven states, where we can't accept immigrants, almost every analyst points out the obvious: It just increases the threat of terror. It lays the basis for terror. It's just like the atrocities in Abu Ghraib and Bagram and Guantanamo. They're the most fabulous recruiting techniques for Al Qaeda and ISIS.

  Noam Chomsky

  Crazy, Isis, Atrocities

  Source: www.counterpunch.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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• General Colin Powell shocked a lot of people in Washington by speaking out against President Bush's policies, saying that the world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism. That's what I think he said - it was hard to hear him because he was being hustled out of the room to his cell in Guantanamo Bay.

  Jay Leno

  Fighting, Thinking, Cells

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• Remember when Obama was campaigning? Didn't he say he was going to close Guantanamo Bay? Didn't he say that? Apparently, he just meant for renovations.

  Jay Leno

  Remember, Renovation, Guantanamo Bay

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• Anyway, a spokesman for Barack Obama says the prisoners that are released from Guantanamo will either be sent back to their home countries or enter the New York City cab driver training program.

  Jay Leno

  Country, New York, Home

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• I think Guantanamo, has been synonymous with the staining of American values and American legal tradition.

  Mark Shields

  Thinking, Tradition, American Values

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• The important thing here to understand is that the people that are at Guantanamo are bad people. I mean, these are terrorists for the most part.

  Dick Cheney

  Mean, People, Important

  "Vice President Dick Cheney Talks With Sean Hannity". "Hannity & Colmes" with Sean Hannity, www.foxnews.com. June 13, 2005.

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• To overcome extremism, we must also be vigilant in upholding the values our troops defend – because there is no force in the world more powerful than the example of America. That is why I have ordered the closing of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, and will seek swift and certain justice for captured terrorists – because living our values doesn't make us weaker, it makes us safer and it makes us stronger.

  Barack Obama

  Powerful, America, Justice

  First Speech to a Joint Session of Congress, delivered 24 February 2009

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• I stand on my public record as a defender of the human rights of Muslims, notably my work for Moazzam Begg and other British Muslims detained without trial in Guantanamo Bay.

  Hari Kunzru

  Rights, Trials, Records

  "Why I quoted from The Satanic Verses" by Hari Kunzru, www.theguardian.com. January 22, 2012.

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• Guantanamo is a chief recruiting tool for al-Qaida. It has put a wedge between the United States and at least some of its allies.

  Eric Holder

  Allies, United States, Tools

  "Holder: Guantanamo Detainee Decision Soon". "All Things Considered" with Robert Siegel, www.npr.org. October 15, 2009.

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• Our actions in the Middle East over the last 15 years have already guaranteed radical Muslims quite enough ammunition to kill Americans for the next century, even if Guantanamo did not exist.

  Nick Clooney

  Years, East, Our Actions

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• I think the suffering, violence and cruelty and Guantanamo and the rest is going to go on and on in Iraq.

  Clare Short

  Thinking, Iraq, Suffering

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• Don't come lecturing us about liberty. You need a reality check. Don't act like a spoiled rude child. Here you will only find dignity and sovereignty. Here we haven't invaded anyone. Here we don't torture like in Guantanamo. Here we don't have drones killing alleged terrorist without any due trial, killing also the women and children of those supposed terrorists. So don't come lecturing us about life, law, dignity, or liberty. You don't have the moral right to do so.

  Rafael Correa

  Children, Reality, Law

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• Her round, mascara-streaked face looked back at him out of the rear window. He forced a grin and a wave before lighting another cigarette, and reflecting that Lucy's idea of sympathty compared unfavourably with some of the interrogation techniques they had used at Guantanamo.

  J. K. Rowling

  Interrogation Techniques, Ideas, Faces

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• I mean, the people who run Guantanamo, the military, pretty much dismiss complaints by the detainees because they say that they're all created as part of a political process to sort of fake complaints and get public support.

  Jane Mayer

  Running, Military, Mean

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• American soldiers had to guard prisoners on the inside while receiving mortar and weapons fire from the outside. Guantanamo is distant from any battlefield, making it far more secure.

  John Yoo

  Fire, Soldier, Receiving

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