Tue Aug 18, 2009

On Today's Show: www.crntalk.com

USS Cole Commander Kirk Lippold
Commander Kirk S. Lippold, USN (Ret.), was the Commanding Officer of the USS Cole (DDG-67) on October 12, 2000 when the ship was attacked and bombed by Al-Qaeda terrorists during a refueling stop in the Yemeni port of Aden, killing 17 U.S. sailors. Lippold assumed command of the Cole on June 25, 1999 and served until he was relieved on March 9, 2001. Kirk S. Lippold, Former USS Cole Commander and Senior Military Fellow at Military Families United, released the following statement concerning the breaking news that Mohammed Jawad, an al Qaeda operative who attacked American troops in Afghanistan in 2002, will be transferred and released from Guantanamo Bay in up to three weeks. “No coherent policy in the war on terror. No comprehensive plan in place to deal with the future of Guantanamo Bay detainees. No accountability for terrorists who attack and wound our brave fighting forces. Now, in a strikingly familiar political decision, the Obama Administration has announced it plans on releasing Mohammed Jawad, a terrorist who attacked and wounded two U.S. soldiers and an Afghan citizen in a grenade attack. Provided with a fresh opportunity to return to the battlefield, this potential release demonstrates the Administration’s capitulation to the interests of activist organizations such as the ACLU. They have chosen to prioritize the ACLU’s interests over the lives of our troops, the national security of our country and the freedom that we as Americans enjoy. This terrorist release announcement comes only days after the Administration failed to meet its self-imposed deadline for a developing a comprehensive plan to deal with GITMO detainees. It is just the latest example of a dangerous pattern of piecemeal decisions made to keep an ill-advised campaign promise. Military Families United has been urgently calling for the President to develop a plan to keep America safe and bring justice to these terrorists. If the President’s solution to this problem is to release terrorists, he can no longer claim he is keeping America safe. He is purposefully putting our troops in greater danger and setting a precedent that will result in more American troop deaths. Jawad’s actions already wounded three individuals. How many more terrorists does the President need to release before he realizes the threat they pose to our troops? Our country and the brave troops that protect it should not be put at greater risk because vital national security decisions are being made to meet arbitrary deadlines and repay campaign debts to the ACLU. Americans deserve better and the country needs an effective, coherent strategy to deal with War on Terror detainees. We cannot allow terrorists to slip through our fingers because of misplaced and untrue political perceptions about Guantanamo Bay.”

"IF IGNORANCE IS BLISS, WHY AREN'T THERE MORE HAPPY PEOPLE? "
John Lloyd was the producer of the television shows Not the Nine O'Clock News, Blackadder, and Spitting Image for which he earned a lifetime achievement award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). He is the creator of the hit BBC show QI.

John Mitchinson is from the world of books. As Managing Director of Cassell he published the Beatles, Michael Palin and Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Now he writes and researches for the television program QI and drinks in the same North Oxfordshire pub as John Lloyd.