Melanie and others went to Gitmo (Guantanamo Bay Naval Base) to take a look at conditions there.
Here is the press release:
OBAMA SHOULD KEEP GITMO OPEN
MAF Leaders Call on President-Elect to Visit Personally to Get Facts
SACRAMENTO – Move America Forward (MAF), the nation’s largest pro-troop, grassroots organization, urged President-Elect Barack Obama to personally travel to the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base and learn why Gitmo should be kept open to house the world’s worst terrorists.
Melanie Morgan, Chairman of Move America Forward, led a delegation to the naval base last week to bring gifts, Christmas and Hanukkah cards and expressions of support to American troops there. The entourage was granted a tour of the detention facilities while at the base.
Morgan, said, “We strongly urge President-elect Obama to meet with our military men and women at Guantanamo Bay and see for himself the high level of professionalism of America’s soldiers. He can then be assured that these terrorists are treated far better in the detention center than they are in their own countries. They have better food, better health care, better security, better movie selections and better and cleaner clothes than they have ever had in their lives.
“There is a reason why the average terrorist detainee has gained 15 pounds while staying here. It isn’t because he is being mistreated, instead he is being treated with kid gloves,” Morgan concluded.
Morgan was accompanied on the trip by Kylie Williams, the official ambassador for veterans’ advocacy for the State of Florida, who facilitated the trip. Traveling on the tour in addition to Morgan and Williams were MAF staff members Catherine Moy, Danny Gonzalez and Ryan Gill. Also accompanying the group was Gold Star Mom and MAF spokesperson Debbie Lee, whose son Marc Alan Lee was the first Navy SEAL killed in Iraq.
Morgan added, “It disturbed me to see how well the terrorists are being treated, and then have to put up with liberal politicians attacking our troops. As one of the soldiers said to me, ‘It makes us sick when people tell lies about what we do. We are proud to represent America and we do NOTHING to shame our Commander-in-Chief or the American people.’
Obama appeared on 60 Minutes last month and proclaimed again, “I intent to close Guantanamo and I will follow through on that.” He has said that he wants to move the terrorists to Leavenworth, Kansas, and other civilian and military prisons in the United States.
"Do we really want to invite terrorist attacks to our neighborhoods, schools and communities where federal prisons are potentially slated to house these monsters?" asks Morgan
The group is urging Obama to reverse his campaign pledge to close Gitmo and bring the terrorists to the United States for criminal trials.
Debbie Lee responded, “My son gave his life to kill the terrorists in their country, not to bring them to our country. Our military men and women are sacrificing every day to keep us safe. The wrong thing for the President to do is to close this base in the face of false charges against our military. He should get the facts himself and not listen to those who follow the anti-military line without knowing the truth.”
The worst comment from an American politician came from Illinois U.S. Senator Dick Durbin:
"If I ... didn't tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners [At Guantanamo] in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime, Pol Pot, or others that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that is not the case. This was the action of Americans in the treatment of their prisoners." (PBS' "The Newshour," 6/17/05)
Durbin subsequently offered a half-hearted apology for his outrageous accusations against our military.
In reality, the terrorists have better accommodations than our troops. They live in air conditioned state-of-the art new buildings; they have more recreation time than American school children; they get prayer rugs and Qurans, which non-Muslim U.S. soldiers cannot even touch. They get six different menus to choose from; among their offerings are Baked Tandouri Chicken Breast, Mustard-Dill Baked Fish, Lyonnaise Rice, and Fish Amandine.
Morgan said, “I don't remember seeing that on the menu at Nazi concentration camps or in Soviet gulags. I doubt Pol Pot offered them in the killing fields of Cambodia.”
According to the Congressional Record , Vermont U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy had this to say:
"Now that may sound like an experience from some oppressive and authoritarian regime, something that may have happened under the Taliban, something that Saddam Hussein might have ordered or in the fiction of Kafka." (Congressional Record, 9/28/06, p. S10356)
“It is just disgusting what some American politicians are willing to say to appeal to the far left anti-military crowd in the United States. When terrorists decided to smash their TV and destroy their TV room at Gitmo because a Palmolive soap commercial came on that revealed a woman's arm, what do you think our response was? Yes, we got them a new flat screen TV - although this time it is encased in hard Plexiglas so they couldn't destroy it again,” Morgan said.
Recent news stories suggest that Obama may be having second thoughts about bringing terrorist onto American shores. Negotiations are apparently underway with some of our allies to hold some of the terrorists on their shores to keep Obama from having to take the political heat of bringing terrorists to America.
“The real solution is easy,” Morgan said, “if Obama can free himself from the left-wing anti-military ideologues that supported his campaign. . . Keep Gitmo Open!”