Gitmo Didn't Cause the NYC Terror Plot

Here's the Commander-in-Chief from his Archives speech:

Meanwhile, instead of serving as a tool to counter terrorism, Guantanamo became a symbol that helped al Qaeda recruit terrorists to its cause. Indeed, the existence of Guantanamo likely created more terrorists around the world than it ever detained.

With that in mind, here's some background on the four clowns busted for trying to blow up New York synagogues in the name of Allah (emphasis added):

Muslims fueled by hatred of America and Jews, they spent months scouting targets and securing what they thought was a surface-to-air missile system and powerful explosives — all under the watch of an FBI informant.

Perfect--one was an illegal alien fighting deportation while living off food stamps in public housing (just like Obama's aunt). And horror of horrors:

Relatives said the defendants were down-on-their-luck men who worked at places like Wal-Mart,

As if working at Wal-Mart is synonymous with becoming a dirty terrorist or deadbeat. This is the kind of moral relativism that prompted Bush/Cheney to open Gitmo in the first place. They wanted to keep 'brainwashed' murderers off the streets, out of the courts (with pro-bono publicity hound lawyers) and away from the sympathetic sensationalizing media. Lives were in the balance.

Obama mentioned the prosecution of Ramzi Yousef as an example of our previous sterling success before Bush messed everything up by opening Gitmo. As if. We never got anything of substance out of Yousef because he was put into the criminal justice system immediately upon arrival in New York (he even vowed his buds would one day take out the Trade Centers on the way into town on the helicopter). Most assuredly he knew a lot about his uncle KSM, bin Laden, al-Qaeda, and maybe even some things about state participation in terrorism.

Yet that's Obama's definition of success. He doesn't seem to get it. Yousef wanted to topple one tower into the other, killing hundreds of thousands. He developed that hatred having never heard of Gitmo, as did Zawahiri and bin Laden.

Fact is there have been more than a few whispers about what goes on at Supermax, ie, possible brutality. And there will be more if we put the Gitmo people in similar places. Yet somehow moving the terrorists to a more clandestine and less media-accessible facility will somehow improve our moral values? Not to mention that the New York jihadies radicalized in jail.

Somebody needs to open a history book and show Obama that Bush didn't cause the mess he's now whining about--he inherited it from Clinton, who inherited it from Bush 41. Do we need a better system for detainees? Probably, but dumping on the previous guy while reverting to a failed policy really does nothing to make the country safer. Just words, not change.