Gitmo Protesters Descend On Obama Transition Headquarters

On Monday, it was reported that Barack Obama was prepared to issue an executive order shortly after taking office to close down the United States military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The news -- a breakthrough for civil rights and foreign policy organizations critical of the detention center -- wasn't enough to placate the masses, it seems. According to the President-elect's pool report, a group of protesters, dressed as Gitmo detainees, demonstrated outside of the Obama's transition headquarters on Tuesday. They have been doing so for the past few days, and were told by police to move away.

As written by the pool reporter:

While your pool was waiting in the motorcade for departure, about two dozen people in orange jump suits with black hoods over their heads and most with their hands tied behind their backs, gathered outside Transition HQ demanding that the terror prison at Guantanamo be shut down. They displayed a banner with a picture of the White House on it that read, "Close Guantanamo." A few also held smaller individual signs that said, "Shut down Guantanamo."

Your pooler was told the group has demonstrated outside President-elect Obama's HQ the past few days. Police, who arrived in eight vehicles, asked the group to move along and they slowly marched off single file, hands behind their backs looking like dejected vision-impaired sanitation workers (except their jumpsuits were pretty darn clean). Upon departure, we observed the relocated protesters about a block away from Transition HQ.

Comments

[VMA]

I feel bad for PE Obama...It seems that people expect him to solve all the problems of the world (NOW)! Close Gitmo, Solve the Israel-Palenstine Issue, Get America back to work, Fix the Stock Market, Fix the Borders, Solve the Immigration Issue, Change DADT, Prop 8, Universal Health Care, Afghanistan, Prosecute Bush...

Hopefully he has a plan, objectives and strategies that will address all these issues, but it feels like to that the biggest problem with most people is they want everything NOW without considering all angles (good and bad). Haven't we figured out yet that this is one of our biggest problems? As President, it should be expected that he follow through on campaign promises, but for goodness sake, all of this did not just happen and it ain't gonna be fixed overnight.

[Plowboy]

Cloose the damned place down, and don't just move thosde prisoners somewhere else.If the lying Neocon owned administration of His Stupidity had had any pretense of evidence agtainst them they would already have been tried. Free them; pay them big reparations; send them to any place they wish. And if they want to stay here give them a lifetime pension taken from funds that would pay those of the Bush-Cheney gang and their supporters in Congress.

[yvonne61]

GO AFTER BUSH LEAVE OBAMA ALONE.

[friskee1]

again, my beef with progressives. protesting someone who is clearly on your side serves no purpose and in fact, it defeats it.

[lynnn]

Yes they should protest the MSM outlets that won't use the word torture when talking about
Gitmo (Chris Mathews is one of the only ones who has).

[HHarvey]

This protest sounds pretty redundant. If you want to be heard people do it with some intelligent thought or maybe you just felt like wearing an orange jumpsuit and a black hood over your head, who knows? Perhaps you should read the paper or watch the morning news before you protest.

[sticksnstones]

And perhaps you should keep in mind that it was exactly these kinds of protests that brought about the end of the Vietnam War and led to the resignation of Nixon and led Johnson to decide against a second term of office.

[luvangelHussein330]

If these people would have taken the time to read or atleast look at the news then they would know that he still intends to close gitmo, that what he has always said. so he won't be able to close it in the first 100 days DAH!! It's been open now 8 years it isn't going to be closed easily...
Like I always say...progressives are thier own worst enemy..darned if Obama does darned if he doesn't. They are not happy unless there is somethign to scream and hollar about

[Whinger]

Protes if he does, protest if he doesn't - some people are never satisfied.

[Dystopic]

Anyone think these are actually protester and not more of the PUMA crowd?

[hapiday]

It's going to be a long and exciting 4 years.

[chocolatecity]

"He had gone wobbly on his commitment to shutting Gitmo."

Really? I thought he was being honest. This will be complicated. Never ever has the man been wobbly on shutting down Gitmo. What do you think he should do with all of those prisoners genius?

[marignymitch]

Charge them or release them. Couldn't be more uncomplicated.

[JBirder]

If we release them, they will need someplace to go. For many, there is no country on earth that is willing to accept them. Perhaps, you think we should just let them walk out the front gate? I have no doubt that Castro would be thrilled.

As Obama said, it is a complicated problem.

[HHarvey]

And where, pray tell, will they go? Our prisons here in the U.S. are overcrowded.

[BarackstarObama]

I guess these people can't hear or read.

[LetMeUnderstandThis]

As he has said during his campaign Gitmo will be shut down, so what is the need protest?

[SailFree]

Pressed for specifics, Obama says only that he thinks waterboarding--which reportedly has been used only a few times, and not recently--is "torture." As blogger Tom Maguire notes, Stephanopoulos asked Obama "a seemingly easy question"--whether the Army Field Manual will set the limits for all interrogation of terrorists--"but chose to sidestep it." Then the host tried again:

Stephanapoulos: So no more special CIA program?

Obama: I'm not going to lay out a particular program because again, I thought that Dick Cheney's advice was good, which is let's make sure we know everything that's being done.

It is certainly to Obama's credit that he has decided to "know what's going on" rather than "making judgments on the basis of incomplete information or campaign rhetoric." In an ideal world, he would have abjured the irresponsible campaign rhetoric to begin with. But in imperfect reality, running a dishonest campaign isn't as bad as instituting reckless policies.
--J. Taranto

[Petey131]

It would have been better if these protesters would have done this everyday during the last 8 years in front of the W.H.

[Dystopic]

these are republicans, not concerned citizens

[obamagal]

... or as someone mentioned above, PUMA activists.

[Skyhawk]

Please. Some of the left-wingers can be just as ascinine as the right. Grow up and see what Obama does AFTER he's sworn in. If we're lucky the stimulus plan will help these guys find a job.