Oh, so now he's concerned about freeing terrorists

File this under "D" for "DUH!" Obama "fulfilled" one of his campaign promises shortly after being inaugurated by signing an executive order to close Gitmo. He railed on about the detention facility throughout the election, and claimed it needed to be closed in honor of "hope" and "change" or some other crappy throwaway line. But Reuters is reporting that he is showing a bit of reluctance behind the decision: (HT to Little Green Footballs)

President Barack Obama said in an interview aired on Monday he worried that detainees freed from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo, Cuba, might resume attacks on the United States.

But he told NBC News that closure of the prison was a matter of upholding U.S. values and law, and that a failure to do so would ultimately make Americans less secure.

"Can we guarantee that they're not going to try to participate in another attack? No," Obama said. "But what I can guarantee is that if we don't uphold our Constitution and our values, that over time that will make us less safe. And that will be a recruitment tool for organizations like al-Qaeda."

Um, we are upholding the Constitution. Terrorists -- foreign nationals specifically -- have NO rights under our Constitution. They don't get habeas corpus rights. They don't get Fifth and Sixth Amendment protections. Furthermore, as these people were caught on the battlefield -- as illegal combatants under the Geneva Convention -- they are to be tried in a military tribunal. Where are you going to house them until that day comes? Gitmo makes the most sense because it's not on US soil.

He still hasn't figured out where he's going to stick these people, but he doesn't want them in Gitmo. Nations from the EU have said they will only take the least dangerous ones if they're shipped abroad (presumably those that respond to harsh language). Worse, he acknowledges that some of these people could return to the battlefield and face off against our soldiers again. So why release them at all?

Obama has shown us that he loves to capitulate to his frenetic base, but that he lacks the sound judgment to truly figure out problems like this. He just wants it closed, and he's given himself a year to find a new location for these animals to be housed. We've got a bet going right now that in the four years this moron will be in office, we won't see Gitmo closed. Any takers?

Publius II