Congressman Pompeo incites military to defy President Obama

By SJ Otto

It is not surprising to hear that Representative Mike Pompeo (R-KS) has encouraged the US Joint Chiefs of Staff to deliberately defy President Barack Obama's policy to shut down the Guantanamo Bay concentration camp.

Pompeo is probably the most pro-military, pro-imperialist pro-war congress person ever elected to represent the people of the fourth district of Kansas. If a Democrat had made such a suggestion he would be accused of treason, but Pompeo is a Republican and they seem to be treated as "above the law" here in Kansas.

In a letter to the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US military Pompeo said:

“As the urgency of the threat presented by Islamic extremism grows, we cannot afford to have the commander-in-chief issue executive orders in direct contravention of laws that he enacted,” Pompeo said in a statement. “I encourage the Joint Chiefs of Staff carry out an exhaustive legal review before implementing any executive order transferring these dangerous terrorists to the United States.”

Pompeo is using the same fear tactics employed by the former President George W. Bush when he instituted the Guantanamo Bay camps. This camp is one of the worst examples of human rights violations every committed by politicians of this country. Guantánamo, G-bay or GTMO, was established on Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. At the time of its establishment in January 2002, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said the prison camp was 'established to detain extraordinarily dangerous people, to interrogate detainees in an optimal setting, and to prosecute detainees for war crimes.' However, The Bush administration asserted that detainees were not entitled to any of the protections of the Geneva Conventions. Because of this action the facility became a place to just warehouse the prisoners without trial, in cages that resembled dog pens. Bush called these prisoners of war "enemy combatants," even though these were mostly military soldiers who attempted to defend their countries from a US invasion. Bus stripped them of any rights normally regarded to prisoners of war, insisting these were dangerous criminals and terrorists (a term that is in reality a propaganda label). He also stripped them of any human rights or dignity. He treated them more like rabid animals than human beings. This camp was an embarrassing blight on America and many progressive people and human rights activists wanted it closed down.

Even serial killers in the US are given trials and lawyers. Even the worst Nazi prisoners of World War II were treated as prisoners of war and given trials. Bush was trying to dehumanize anyone who got in his way of "nation building," which was a fancy way of saying this country had the right to conquer other countries and create puppet governments designed to serve US political, economical and military interests. This was blatant imperialism and the creation of colonies in both Iraq and Afghanistan.   In a 2005 Amnesty International report, the facility was called the "Gulag of our times."

When President Barack Obama was elected, he vowed to close Guantanamo Bay, but he never fully did that. He has kept the facility in operation for a few prisoners that no country wants back and politicians in states, such as Kansas, have blocked sending these prisoners to a regular prison. Kansas has several such prisons, such as Lansing Correctional Facility. There is no reason these people would pose any safety issues in a regular US prison. Progressives and activists have demanded that Guantanamo be closed down, but those demands have been ignored.

These prisoners should either be released or put in a regular prison so Guantanamo Bay can be closed down for good.

Pompeo is a jingoistic war monger and he has set himself up as an ​accomplice to war crimes. Guantanamo Bay was a violation of human rights and in setting it up President Bush was a war criminal. Pompeo is also traitor to his own government and he deserves to be kicked out of Congress. With his crew of jingoistic veterans, we can only expect Pompeo to ignore the rule of law as he seems to feel military persons are above the law.

This also highlights the policy of US imperialism, the idea that the US has a divine right to intervene in other country's affairs to make sure resources, such as oil, are readily available to the US, in spite of what ever needs the local people in the Middle-east have. It means that the US has a right to decide what kinds of governments people in other parts of the world can have, not what the local people want. It means blatant military domination of other countries and the theft of resources.  

This is a policy we really need to oppose. Pompeo is a traitor to US democracy!

Caged like animals at Guantanamo Bay.