in 2007, i went to guantanamo, the head of guantanamo at the time. admiral harry harris said to me at the time, how is there informational value here? and he said, look, things could happen in the leadership of al qaeda. the guys here might recognize them, might be able to tell us something about them. so there was still a lingering sense there was informational values we had by the detainees. i don't get that sense anymore. i don't know if you get that. i haven't seen it come up. it hasn't come up in the congressional hearings i have seen, et cetera, et cetera. the final thing is military commissions. the military commissions have gathered tremendous steam, if not activity, under president obama. now, he has, after, you know, attorney general holder decided after all he would not bring the 9/11 defendants to the federal court system and kept them in the military commission system, this is a commission that stumbled and had fallen, stumbled and fallen continually. it really begs the question, at what point do you say these commissions do not work? at

it's not about guantanamo. i understand that there people who went from the black sites to guantanamo, but they're a little bit different. >> well, no. i would like to see a similar process applied to what took place in guantanamo. but it's not as though we don't know is what i meant really. >> but her question was about what will come to light in these trials about torture. what might come out. i think the answer to that is it's not so much -- i agree, it's not so much a worry about what's going to come out because of how much we know and how that is about khalid sheikh mohammed and those. but the real underlying truth here is when you have tortured individuals who are on trial, or whose witnesses and evidence have got people who were tortured, you actually can't try that. and it doesn't matter what kind of system you built to put lipstick on this thing. it doesn't work. it's a fatal flaw. and all the machinations in the world won't get around it in the military commission system, whereas ahmed galani was tort

how can you close guantanamo?he idea of actually closing guantanamo may have passed that particular moment. the model, we are not going to let it happen. the other thing was informational value. that seemed to dissipate under obama, finally. in 2007, i went to guantanamo. the head at the time, admiral frank hess said how is their informational value? he said, things can happen with the leadership of al qaeda. the guys here might recognize them, able to tell us something. ensee was a lingering s for the informational value we had. i don't get that anymore. i don't know if you do, but i have not seen that come up in the congressional hearings that i have seen, etc. the final thing is a military commission. the 9/11 commission gathered tremendous steam, if not activity, under president obama. you know, he had attorney general eric holder, he decided that they would not bring the 9/11 defendants to the federal court system. he kept them in the military commission. the commission that has stumbled and fallen continuall

guantanamo is a test of what this nation stands for. unfortunately looking back through history, it seemed to me that our nation of great principles seems terribly willing to sacrifice those principles whenever there is a threat. yell about security and sacrifice principles like individual freedom and habeas corpus. someday, i hope that we realize at hearing to our principles 0-- adhering to these principles might be difficult at times, but it is the most important. i would like to get that message across. there was something moving to me about the bridge of spies, if you saw it. agent-- defending an a lawyer who had privileged conversations with him. someone from the cia said, what is the guy telling you? and he said, do you want me to violate the attorney-client privilege? they said, the nations security is at stake. he says, what is your name? you are german of background, and i am irish. you know what makes us american? sticking to the rules. sticking to the rules like abs corpus -- habeas corpus. but not depriving people of their l

constitution on the mainland which they civilly don't have that guantanamo. -- in guantanamo.he rights they had in guantanamo were shut down in washington. which base shut down the kb is beasslation -- have legislation. get real -- get more approved for release. also put coming into play that will make it more difficult for congress to raise obstacles. prisoners approved for release by a high level interagency review process -- i think are kind ofafe from the extremely cynical right-wing maneuvering we say repeatedly in congress. from people who want to keep guantanamo open forever. for people who don't really care about the rights. thatlike having a nation they think people are dangerous and they should be able to hold them for the rest of their life. that is fundamentally un-american. as a british person, that is fundamentally against all of the bases in which we understand the law should work and justice and fairness that we have to have in our lives. otherwise we drift into dangerous territory, which is where we have been. i hope i have provided some kind of summary of whe

in 2,007 i want to guantÁnamo the head of guantÁnamo at the time how is informational value here?. my be able to describe them to us, tell us something about them. for the detainees, i don't get that. i haven't seen that come up. it hasn't come up in the congressional hearing. the final thing is the military commission. they gathered tremendous team if not activity under president obama. he had after attorney general holder decided that he would not bring them to the court system and kept them in the military commission system, this is the commission that is stolen phone continually. and it really begs the question, and what point to say it does not work. these need to be had, someplace where now we have the expertise and the structure to try these individuals. so ironically the way i see what is happening in guantÁnamo, who would've thought it would keep guantÁnamo. what has happened in the last six months, there is much more energy being placed into getting people out of guantÁnamo and the media is not calling attention to it which is good, number of individuals of come off. ver

they were not at guantanamo bay? sharyl: graham insists since congressional funds e needed to transfer prisoners, it's the republican-led congress, not the president, who will decide guantanamo's fate. sen. graham: anybody who believes now is the time to close guantanamo bay is delusional, and i would say this is a further sense of president obama's delusion about how the war is actuauay going. he has no idea. he has no idea about the threats we face. if he had any idea, this is the last thing he would do. sharyl: you're calling president obama delusional on this. sen. graham: yeah. totally. he's totally delusional about the state of play in the mideast. spending bill, congress included a ban on transferring prisoners to the u.s. president obama said the gitmo part might violate the separation of powers. that leaves open the ideas that he could try to use executive authority to again bypass congress. still ahead on "full measure" -- many of the enemy combatants at guantanamo were e ce important al qaeda players who p

closing guantanamo at this stage and the obama administration view is really moving guantanamo to u.s. soil. the idea is not to open the cages and let everybody go or give them federal trials and put them in federal detention. the idea is to pick up the last detainees and move them to military detention in the united states. what we call guantanamo north. closing the detention center in cuba and reconstituting on u.s. soil. congress so far has systemically blocked that vision. >> why? >> i think that part of it is that there is fear that for some reason these alleged terrorists are scarier than all of the alleged terrorists-- or actually the convicted terrorists in u.s. prisons. i think part of is that members of congress really like the message of guantanamo. and the message of guantanamo to the world is mess with us and you end up in a cage at guantanamo bay. in addition, there is ambition by some people in congress to grow guantanamo. they like the idea that this could be an interrogation center. and mostly nobody wants guantanamo in their backyard. >> sreenivasan: what have the ou

president obama: i'll work to shut down the prison at guantanamo. it's unnecessary and serves as a recruitment brochure for our enemies. amy: today marks seven years since president obama called for the closure of guantanamo bay within one year but it remains open and obama has a year left to fulfill his pledge. we'll speak to the legendary musician roger waters, co-founder of pink floyd. he first got involved to help ee the guantanamo prisoner shaka amir. >> his lead attorney from london received a letter from him where shaka describes how passive his techniques of staying sane in guantanamo was to remember songs and sing them and one of them was a song of mine called "hey you." amy: roger waters helped launch the countdown to close the guantanamo. then in a democracy now! exclusive, we look at the case of an undocumented guatemalan immigrant detained in the latest round of controversial raids. angel rosa is recovering from gain green which he said began when he was held in a filthy detention center and his family says he faces certain death if dep

guantanamo bay prisoner detainees. this is his final briefing before he retires. he served as commander since november 2012. this is 45 minutes. i'm very happy to be here. many friends over the years. as you might know, i'm about to go over the side for the last time. i retire at the end of the month. it is next thursday. i will tell you it was very unique. it is a remarkable organization. very different mission. it is all about broadening and deepening partnerships down there to say the least. i would say the partners we have in latin america and the caribbean like the united states want to be associated with the united states. there is a few down there who didn't get the memo about democracy and human rights and that kind of thing but some of that is even turning around. they really do like and associate with us. they very much like, and are very proud of this, that southern command doesn't point the finger but work with them. we deliver an awful lot of good advice, education, and assistance. the other thing we do a lot of as an inneragency partner is c n confis

but the pledge to close down guantanamo is something the white house is holding to. they said that should not be taken off of the table, despite the serious obstacle, which is that congress will not allow any of these people to be transferred to u.s. soil. two of the prisons that have been touted as possible relocation places have been ruled off of the table by the very powerful congressmen who represent those areas. 355 people suspected of terrorism are being held in american prisons on u.s. soil. so it is certainly a realistic prospect for them to come back -- or to be brought back to american soil, but only one has actually been tried in a u.s. court. the rest have been put before military commissions, which with very uneven results. a lot of these cases have been reversed. so the president maintains his pledge that he will close down guantanamo, but right now, given the fact that there are, as well, several -- about 40 prisoners who were considered indefinite detainees, because they are crimes related to 9/11, and other serious ins insy -- incidents, it's not cle

the assessment of joint task force guantanamo. mohammed omar bin atef is described as a highly trained fighter. most troubling the report says quote he has threatened to kill u.s. citizens on multiple occasions, including a specific threat to cut their throats upon release. >> as they looked at their military capability and their intent. this is someone who fought for al qaeda, who was trained by al qaeda and throughout his time in custody. he had this intent to harm americans, these two things together are what made him a high risk in their opinion. what ghana is saying about these two guys isn't accurate. if you look at what the white house and the administration says, they basically are not refuting it, they're not going to knock it down. >> it leads you to the impression that this is what they told but these two guys, it's wrong. >> "weekly standard," steve hayes, pressed the information minister at ghana's embassy in washington, about why ghana agreed to take these yemeni detainees, the minister said the u.s. government provi

guantanamo needs to be closed.nyone still in guantanamo who poses a threat to the united states should be transferred to a maximum security prison inside the united states. >> they can't be. >> apparently there are people who think they can't be that we can't hold them in a mks mum security prison safely. but we can. we're strong enough to do that. >> then the congress passed a requirement that they not do it. it can't be funded. they will not come into u.s. prisons. though now there is a report out tonight saying there is a plan that ash carter, defense secretary, is getting ready, that would indeed house some remaining gitmo detainees in the u.s., pete. i don't know how he will do it. >> it is not a secret to those of us that this administration would flop t ignore what congress is trying to do. they are still looking at places in the united states. he cited three reasons in the state of the union why we want to close guantanamo bay. it is expensive. that coming from the guy who loaded up $19 trillion in debt. do

and some say that is not closing guantanamo that is moving guantanamo. >> the president in the statee union continued to reiterate it's his goal to close gitmo has he missed previous opportunities to close the prison and to transfer detainees out? >> yes. in fact, i think that if you look back at the arc of it the president's original intent was to either try people or let them go but in the first year of his administration he looked into the files of these people, his task force looked at the files of these people and concluded there were detainees there who they did not want to let go, that they feared letting go and there were detainees for whom there were no charges and they created this category called law of war prisoner, kind of like a prisoner of war but since al-qaeda is not a country they don't afford them the same pow status so once they concluded there were people who they could not or would not try and they could not or would not let go you end up with this other category, so. >> how many people are in that other category that are still at gitmo? >> as of today 47. >> we

seven former inmates of guantanamo bay have come together to demand a closure of the u.s. prison camp. it opened 14 years ago. despite plans set out by obama to close it, it is still open. high profiles held a protest outside the u.s. embassy in london. >> reporter: over the past 14 years the register of those detained at guantanamo bay has included the names of nearly 80 men. for the first time, seven of those men gathered on monday. along them, this man freed just last october to guantanamo bay, and these other men >> i think it is something that i can't forget. it saddens me that people are still in guantanamo although they are not guilty of a crime and america has made a massive mistake. >> reporter: guantanamo bay became synonymous with so-called enhanced interrogation which human rights lawyers said amounted to torture. the prisoner language issued in custody. even those cleared for released were trapped in a legal and diplomatic limbo >> there are a whole bunch of people who you have shn cleared and only a few charged. >> reporter: with just a year of his presidency

president, the hope of these campaigners is by then guantanamo bay will have closed.n, al jazeera, central london. >> the spanish king's sister has become the first member of the royal family there to be put on trial. princess christina is charged with the involvement of the alleged embezzlement of public charges. she denies the charge. paul brennan reports from the spanish city of majorca. >> greed at the top of spanish society. princess christina listened while the charges were read out. against the 17 other defendants, her husband, charged with fraud and money-laundering. in essence the couple are accused of stealing public money. using what was as you tensibly a charitable foundation to fund a lavish lifestyle. they and others deny the charges. it's been a difficult time for the spanish royal family. two years ago, the frail and increasingly unpopular king juan carlos, abdicated. his son felipe became king. since then felipe has tried odistanctodistance himself froms sister. >> this has become embarrassing for the spanish royal family and the wide are elite. it gi

obama has used a similar argument when defending his plan to close guantanamo.he prison has been a recruitment tool for terrorists and he is expected to express his resolve for the plan again this week when he delivers his final state of the union address. alecia rose, nhk, washington. >>> you're watching "newsline" from tokyo where it's finally feeling like winter. >> it's freezing cold outside, yes. the cold air will continue to grip much of japan into tomorrow. we saw the coldest air blanketing much of japan. we saw the first snowfall of the season in the tokyo area. take a look at this footage coming out of tokyo earlier this morning. temperatures dropped 2 degrees celsius in tokyo this morning, creating snow flurries. again, we saw the first snowfall of the season, that's nine days later than normal and 29 days later than last year. yokohama has snowfall. chilly air, cold enough to create snowfall blanket in much of japan, hokkaido through the tokyo region into western japan as well as the korean peninsula and northern portions of china will see snowfall ac

you need guantanamo in the future.the fact that we needed intelligence and that's where would you send people. >> guantanamo, week one of his administration, is there any hope of a consensus? >> no. >> and i think also, more difficult politically. this is a moment in which his leadership on national security issues and specifically the fight against isis is coming under a lot of criticism. you do need something political leverage even to do executive orders. >> how the president mad about the isis strategy and how the public sees it, he wants better pr. he wants a strategy to clean up the pr. does that make sense? >> it makes no sense. >> i think isis is ascendant. it is recruiting. it does seem to be striking when it wants and where if wants and our strategy is not working. next up, the panel's fearless predictions for 2016, as well as their picks for what candidates should be writing on their resolutions lists and charles has one word for jeb bush, next. o get your fiber. try phillips' fiber good gummies plus energy

closing guantanamo bay will not suit everyone. president barack obama pretty much is stopped from closing the detention center, bans transfer of prisoners to the united states, what alternative is there, especially for those that have been charged including the person believed to be the mastermind of 9/11. >> that gets into the the interesting part. there is a real question. the president, in the context would have difficulty moving someone as a detainee. can congress tell the attorney-general who to try and who not if a try. in federal criminal court. that answers an interesting constitutional question. the commissioner could probably do that, at least in my opinion. >> i know the... >> the remainder deal with diplomatically. the remainder he has to deal with diplomatically. >> the numbers are a little fuzzy, as many as one in five are believed to have gone back to the fight. fewer than 110 under president obama, some said there's little risk of recidivism now. what should happen to the group, the middle group of the people who a

i recently was in iraqi kurdistan, guantanamo bay. i've done a lot of american prison stories as well, lebanon, turkish protests. >> so i wanna unpack some of that in a bit. but first, i wanna talk about your politics because you've described yourself as a leftist and you campaigned for president obama back in 2008. what do you think of him today especially given the criticism he's faced over his use of drones, over surveillance and his middle east policy? >> it's a very complicated question. his use of drones is murderous. he is someone who's imprisoned many, many, many whistleblowers. his syria policy was confused and tangled and i think the worst of all the worlds in a number of ways. on the other hand, he does face a lot of criticisms because he's black and you can't deny that. and it's also nice to have a president who is intelligent. and i know that that sounds like, such a low bar, but it is nice to have a president who can make the effort to pronounce the names of other countries correctly and read books. and i sometimes wonde

guantanamo bay is a functioning base and has been for years.when they come up with the cost estimate or cost per detainee and all of that we were never asked here. someone else came up with the number. but i know if you look at, my gitmo budget is plus or minus a million dollars. but that is an approximate. the facility up and running if you keep counting the cost of the facility, which i guess you should, it is an expensive place, i support the commissions and they have a budget, too. but as a nation you make a decision what you will spend your money on. if to detain a detainee at guantanamo bay cost more than saying take that person to the united states if that is the policy decision so be it. i don't have an opinion on whether it is too expensive or not. i just know that, you know, the money i am given i spend frugally and as i said they are very well taken care of. yes? >> thank you, general. i wanted to get your opinion something on guantanamo bay related and something that has been in the news. what did you think of the swap for beau berg

one going back to guantanamo. you think that one of the retainies released in the process had joined the fight undersiege and right now we have isil and isis, do you think are fighting the isis and young people because if they're leave now and they know -- what do you call, they are feely wanting in those countries where they were released? >> well, i can only use the same numbers you all report. i don't think there's any definitive number. a certain percentage have returned to the fite. -- fight. sobeit. i don't know. i don't have any specific knowledge of that other than what -- we all know some number that return to the fight. as far as gitmo, did you ask me instigating isil? i don't know of any -- gitmo is gitmo. the one thing i do feel a little bit disappointed about is the fact that there's a lot of things that have happened in the war on terror or whatever we are calling it today but i'm a little disappointed sometimes of the role of my troops at gitmo is often times joined to maybe things that happened in

but the pledge to close down guantanamo is something the white house is holding to.said that should not be taken off of the table, despite the serious obstacle, which is that congress will not allow any of these people to be transferred to u.s. soil. two of the prisons that have been touted as possible relocation places have been ruled off of the table by the very powerful congressmen who represent those areas. 355 people suspected of terrorism are being held in american prisons on u.s. soil. so it is certainly a realistic prospect for them to come back -- or to be brought back to american soil, but only one has actually been tried in a u.s. court. the rest have been put before military commissions, which with very uneven results. a lot of these cases have been reversed. so the president maintains his pledge that he will close down guantanamo, but right now, given the fact that there are, as well, several -- about 40 prisoners who were considered indefinite detainees, because they are crimes related to 9/11, and other serious in insy -- incidents, it's not clear whet

the transfer will bring the number of detainees left at guantanamo to less than 100... with analysts suggesting the administration believes moving a few dozen to the u-s will be easier logistically and politically. in washington, catherine an emotional day in france... where seventeen people killed in terror attacks one year ago this week. islamic extremists targeted the satirical newspaper charlie hebdo, a kosher market and police in france. today... victims' families joined dignitaries in ceremonies to remember the victims. france remains under a state of emergency after the november 13 attacks in paris that killed 130 people. the terror threat is a major concern across europe... british prime minister david cameron saying his nation will not be cowed by the latest isis video threatening the u-k... cameron says: "we also agreed to do more across europe to counter the extremist propaganda and the poisonous ideology of islamic extremism that is the root cause of the terrorism we face. the daesh threat is a threat to us all, and we must stand together to defeat it." 20-1

i will keep working to shut down the prison at guantanamo. it is expensive, it is unnecessary, and it only serves as a recruitment brochure for our enemies. the drawdown at guantanamo is drawing attacks from members of congress.. who told sharyl attkisson of fox 28's full measure.. that it's the republican led congress, not the president, who will decide gitmo's fate. anybody who believes now is the time to close guantanamo bay y delusional, and i would say this is a further sense of president obama's delusion about how the war is actually going. sharyl: you're calling president obama delusional on this. graham: yeah. totally. he's totally delusional about mideast. state of play in the mideast. you can see more on the debate over closing guantanamo bay.. and hear from someone who helped capture the enemy combatantsa& on full measure with sharyl attkisson, this sunday morning at nine, right here on fox 28. coming up in sports... the best of the best in the mississippi valley conference... on one court in iowa city... we have hoops highlights n

there are many things wrong with guantanamo bay. it is not wrong, in my view, to hold people as prisoners of war when you pick them up on the battlefield. that is recognized. that has legitimacy. was not setmo bay up that way. it was set up outside the regular norms. system, which is a rule of law system, when you try outsidesomething set up and integrate it with a system, with the regular system, it doesn't work. administration, the white house's instructions to me , starting in 2009 when i was approaching governments to take detainees, was, make sure you so youurity assurances know what will happen to these people when you have transferred them to third countries. corners, and although we want to close it, i was on new pressure -- under no pressure to rack up the numbers. we worked hard. there is a risk with every transfer. the risk is greater than zero. but overall, the risk of transferring detainees so you can close the facility is smaller than the risk of maintaining it forever. and this was also the view of the bush administra

there are many things wrong with guantanamo bay. it is not wrong, in my view, to hold people as prisoners of war when you pick them up on the battlefield. that is recognized. that has legitimacy. was not setmo bay up that way. it was set up outside the regular norms. system, which is a rule of law system, when you try outsidesomething set up and integrate it with a system, with the regular system, it doesn't work. administration, the white house's instructions to me , starting in 2009 when i was approaching governments to take detainees, was, make sure you so youurity assurances know what will happen to these people when you have transferred them to third countries. corners, and although we want to close it, i was on new pressure -- under no pressure to rack up the numbers. we worked hard. there is a risk with every transfer. the risk is greater than zero. but overall, the risk of transferring detainees so you can close the facility is smaller than the risk of maintaining it forever. and this was also the view of the bush administra

schwartz: the obama administration transferred three prisoners from guantanamo this week. they are expected to transfer over a dozen more by the end of the month i'm sure the president will speak to this in his state of the union, how he has pledged to shut down the facility. he left open the option that he would use executive action. is there any way for the president to work with congress on this, with republicans? what happens if he tries to get an executive action out? route? rep. thornberry: i don't understand how he could use executive action to order guantanamo closed. there are a group of people that even the administration acknowledges cannot be set loose because they are dangerous, cannot be tried because of the intelligence compromises that that would entail. the law that he signed explicitly prevents them from being brought here to the united states, as well as altering some facility here to house them. an executive order would expressly violate the law that he just signed, and i do not see how he does it. while he made a campaign pledge to close guantanamo, he

shumrani arrived at guantanamo january 16, 2002.roughout his 14 years there, he was never charged with a crime. his transfer leaves 103 prisoners at guantanamo. on monday, former prisoners ruhal ahmed and shaker aamer were among those who rallied outside the u.s. embassy in london to call for the prison's closure. >> i want everybody to know that today we are here not as brother from guantÁnamo, but everybody, all of you, the media outlets, for one reason -- truly to bring justice back, to close guantanamo once and for all. it has been kept open by a country who claims to be the champions of democracy and justice. it is a joke, to be honest. it saddens me that it is open it,i'm out and others have and are still stuck there. amy: an aid convoy has reached the besieged syrian town of madaya, where the united nations says it's received credible reports of people dying of starvation. about 40,000 people have been trapped in the rebel-held town for six months amid a government blockade. monday's shipment was the first foreign aid to reac

i don't think there is a strong argument to be made anywhere to keep guantanamo going. with this presidency the only good thing i could say is always looked like a legacy to me. not with the policies that take place. >> there are those that argue he was is established for one purpose the theory was if you keep foreigners outside you don't need to pay attention a lot of people think that is terrific as we face these terrorist threats a lot of people in this current -- country from vigilantes' think it is an impediment to our security. i am telling you that they believe exactly that. if we are not constrained by the silly little rules if you want to oppose this is how we will defend our nation so the fight with the heather's like us to say our strength comes from our principles. >> i have a twofold question. how important that some of the governor said they will not accept people released in their states? and how much of wanting to keep people there how much torture has been used? the president said he doesn't want to look backwards. >> with the governors that don't want