by Sam Minervino

One of the first things President Obama did when he was inaugurated was to sign an executive order that might someday close the prison at Guantánamo bay. Now, he doesn’t want to call the inmates “enemy combatants” anymore. There isn’t a new name yet, maybe the president will have a contest and the winner will get an all-expense paid trip to sunny, retro Cuba. A suggestion by a learned friend is “people who may have potentially done something wrong” while a British columnist named Ian Martin suggests “not entirely friendly imprisoned individuals". On top of all this, President Obama wants to reach out to the moderate element of the Taliban in Afghanistan for negotiations. Hmmmm, moderate Taliban. One well known American editorialist asked if they were the kinder, gentler Muslim extremists who would only saw heads half way off.

Ian Martin wrote in his column titled; “President Barack Obama - let's hope he knows what he's doing on Guantánamo” for the Telegraph.co.uk the following:

“Last week it emerged that one of the Taliban's top commanders, responsible for coordinating and planning attacks on British troops, is a former 'Gitmo' inmate. This is deeply troubling to put it mildly and what might be termed a "lead indicator".

Let's pray that there is not another attack on British or American civilian targets (it is bad enough that fundamentalist lunatics target our troops as they try to give the Afghans a chance to reconstruct their country)

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But if there is such an attack here or in the United States, and it subsequently emerges that one of the ring-leaders had been in US custody and was then released, there will be hell to pay.

No amount of professorial explanation from a President who is a liberal lawyer would suffice in such dreadful circumstances. Concerns for the rights of those who have landed up in Guantánamo would go out the window about 10 seconds after a terrorist outrage on US or British soil.

The vast majority of voters on both sides of the Atlantic would then want answers from the US administration. Anger would flow if terrorists had been in custody but were then let go to attack us.

Again, for all our sakes, I hope Obama knows what he's doing.”- http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/iain_martin/blog/2009/03/14/president_barack_obama__lets_hope_he_knows_what_hes_doing_on_guantnamo

The new President’s judgment has come into question because in his first six weeks as president he has lied about what he will do on earmarks as well as a number of other issues. Many of his nominee’s for cabinet positions have been less than honest about their pasts especially when it comes to their finances, he has botched meetings with foreign dignitaries, and his handling of the economy has been amateurish at best. He is said to be tired and irritable and that he under-estimated the vast amount of responsibilities of the executive office and the overwhelming amount of work that comes across his desk. A little different from that community organizing gig he once had.

And so, in an effort to help our new president and relieve some of the pressures that have made it so very difficult for him to quit smoking, I ask all of my fellow Americans to send suggestions to me for a new name for the inmates formerly known as “enemy combatants” at Gitmo. The winner will get a ten dollar gift certificate to Samuel’s Bar and Grill but that’s not all; if I receive a winning moniker for the erstwhile enemy combatants before Monday, March 16th, 2009, the entry will get a free shot of the whiskey of their choice. Send your replies to; sminerv1@hotmail.com

Do it today!