McCain: Gitmo should be closed because of Abu Ghraib

I attended a townhall with Senator McCain last summer and then posted video of it. Today, I was reminded of that video. McCain was asked why he wanted to shut Guantanamo Bay and bring the terrorists onto American soil. His answer:

First of all, Guantanomo Bay is a symbol throughout the world of mistreatment of prisoners ... my friends, it is (oh please! as if McCain saying it is makes it so - Kirls). Let me just tell you a story real quick and you all have a right to disagree. I was in a camp, a prison camp in Iraq with Senator Lindsey Graham who was an Air Force lawyer where we arranged to be met with a former high ranking member of al qaeda. a terrorist, a murderer, and a killer. And in the course of our conversation, I said to him, i said “how did you succeed so well after the initial American invasion?” (wth? succeed so well?? That is a slam on those who were running and fighting the war - kirls) ah, … he said two things.

he said one, after the initial invasion it there was total chaos. Murder, rape, robbery, everything was rampant because you didn’t have control of Iraq. He said the second thing, he said that allowed me to recruit (note the rolling up on his tiptoes here; body language says i told you so…see? – kirls) thousands of young men was abu ghraib (note how he says it with finality and pauses ever so slightly waiting for a reaction which doesn’t come – kirls) because the pictures of the mistreatment of prisoners… people you Americans held prisoner in abu ghraib (and yes, that’s me yelling “terrorists lie” – kirls).

so, my view, we have to have a policy, hopefully return these detainees to either to the country they came from or to put them on trial and keep them in prison for as long as is necessary.

You can hear it yourself beginning at approximately 7:40 minutes into this video.

Just one more reason to vote for JD Hayworth for United States Senator from Arizona.