General Wesley Clark on CNN Saturday Morning

January 24, 2009
Transcription by Melange

T.J. Holmes: …President Obama fulfilling one of his campaign promises – shut down the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. He also intends to get into to possibly repeal the ‘Don't ask, don't tell' policy which made President Clinton kind of unpopular with some of the US troops. Could Obama be looking at the same kind of chilly reception? Well, let's bring in retired 4-star general and former NATO Commander Wesley Clark, also former presidential candidate. I'll throw that one in there as well. Sir, let's start with Gitmo. Can you do this? Is this the right thing to do – to say you'll shut it down? To get a date for shutting it down without a plan for what you're going to do with these guys?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I think it's absolutely the right thing to do. The detention center at Guantanamo has cause the United States no end of problems. First of all, apparently a lot of the people who were there shouldn't be there. Secondly, it's a non-transparent facility. It's there as an alternative to an established system of justice. Let's use our system of justice. We've got the best system of justice in the world and it can certainly handle bad actors like Khalid Sheik Mohammed.

General Wesley Clark on Don Siegelman at the Alabama JJ Dinner (Excerpts)

November 30, 2007 | Commentary at Left in Alabama

Introduction by Ron Sparks

Thank you. It's great to be here with you in Alabama.

We're both Southern states. We both like football. Now there's a rumor going around ... You know, we've been loaning you, over the years, a lot of football coaches down here. You know, the Bear came from Fordyce, Arkansas -- and we never got him back.

And now, some of y'all saying "Roll Tide" -- you might be really happy 'cause the rumor is we might get a guy from Camden back.

I can't announce that. I mean I don't know. But we're really excited about it in Arkansas.

I do feel... It's really great to be here with you. I've got so many friends here and so many good people.

First time I came to Alabama, I was at the ... it was 1993 ... and I was at Montgomery at Maxwell Air Force Base at the Air Command Staff College and I had to take a two week training course that they give to 2 star generals. And so, I was down for the course and my wife was with me and we had nothing to do on Saturday and so we thought, "Well, let's just take a look.... let's just drive around Montgomery. We've never been here before."

By Wes Clark

Looking ahead 100 years, the United States will be defined by our environment, both our physical environment and our legal, Constitutional environment. America needs to remain the most desirable country in the world, attracting talent and investment with the best physical and institutional environment in the world. But achieving our goals in these areas means we need to begin now. Environmentally, it means that we must do more to protect our natural resources, enabling us to extend their economic value indefinitely through wise natural resource extraction policies that protect the beauty and diversity of our American ecosystems -- our seacoasts, mountains, wetlands, rain forests, alpine meadows, original timberlands and open prairies. We must balance carefully the short-term needs for commercial exploitation with longer-term respect for the natural gifts our country has received. We may also have to assist market-driven adjustments in urban and rural populations, as we did in the 19th Century with the Homestead Act.