Bad Decision No. 1
In the works as AP reports the Obama transition team is working on a plan to ship Guantanamo detainees to the United States for trial. A move that apparently will require a controversial new system of justice. Release for some, U.S. criminal trials for others, and some new, special system to handle sensitive national security cases … hey, that doesn’t sound very American. Sounds a little like a Cheney-Bush Star Chamber.
Though a hybrid court may be unpopular, other advisers and Democrats involved in the Guantanamo Bay discussions say Obama has few other options.
AP neglects to point out that one of those options is just leaving them there.
Prosecuting all detainees in federal courts raises a host of problems. Evidence gathered through military interrogation or from intelligence sources might be thrown out. Defendants would have the right to confront witnesses, meaning undercover CIA officers or terrorist turncoats might have to take the stand, jeopardizing their cover and revealing classified intelligence tactics.
AP neglects to point out the history of American defense attorneys using court rooms for all manner of political grandstanding.
This has all the makings of a three-ring circus: In this ring, recidivist jihadis return to the battlefield, slaughter the hated Crusaders! In this ring, jihadis and their lawyers perform breath-taking, headline-grabbing stunts! And in this ring, the most bizarre show of all … watch the ACLU, New York Times and Code Pink attack the Obama administration’s Cheny-Bushitlerism!
Talk about “a sad chapter in American history.” This one promises to be a legal potboiler. Also, look for al-Qaeda to start staging terrorism events around the trials. Maybe grabbing a few defendants of its own. Hey, I have an idea. Keep all the illegal enemy combatants in Guantanamo as prisoners of war until the war is over. You know, whenever their side surrenders. If you think there are war criminals among them, hold military tribunals. It’s the American way.*
Here’s Harvard’s Larry Tribe with an alternate view:
“In reality and symbolically, the idea that we have people in legal black holes is an extremely serious black mark … It has to be dealt with.”
Tribe and the AP neglect to point out that it has been, by the United States Supreme Court. And if there are any remaining unsettled issues, while they are being addressed, I’d personally prefer that in time of war the big black holes be legal ones, and that the people in them be jihadis.
* Side issue, but it’s also probably a lot more cost-effective. It’s already in place. No need to transport, house, feed, provide worship opportunities, maintain security, hire private defense teams, etc. in some new venue(s). Underscore the security issue when those venues include in public trials.
Topics: Guantanamo, Obama, al qaeda, media
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 1:01 pm on Monday, November 10, 2008
4 Responses to “Bad Decision No. 1”
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November 10th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Excuse me? The Guantanamo detainees are enemy combatants under the military rule of law. Their status was determined by the beloved-of-pacifists Geneva Convention, the latest amendment of which was agreed upon in 2005.
Whatever the nebulous desires of so-called “world-citizens”, sovereign nations still have the right, under this treaty, to hold enemy combatants responsible for their actions, without virtue of trial or review, [b]until the end of armed conflict[/b]. At that point, their actions may be reviewed by a fair and just international court, as was done in Nuremburg, and has, regrettably, never been done in Cambodia or Vietnam… yet.
What we, as inheritors of the concept of “Sovereign Nations of the Western Enlightenment” have to uphold above all, is the right of self-defense. That includes defense of all our values and principles, not just our borders and nationalities. It requires a firm rejection of cultural equivalency. If we can’t make this choice, we are lost.
November 10th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
This change would essentially be lawfare directed by or own government against us. The military solution is simple. From now on, take no prisoners.
The idea of treating terrorism as a criminal justice problem is fatuous. It led to 9/11. I leaves the Israelis wih thousands of prisoners and their enemies then kidnap Israelis to hold as hostages to exchange one or two dead Jews for hundreds of live, blood-soaked Arab murderers.
November 12th, 2008 at 12:09 am
Based on what the outgoing administration went through on this issue, I expect that Congress is going to have to legislate this into action, and that there might be SCOTUS involvement as well.
In one sense it’s like opening another front in the war on terror, only in this one I don’t see the upside, any way that we’re going to be able to win this particular lawfare front.
While anyone with even passing familiarity with the laws of war will already know, most detainees don’t come even close to qualifying for prisoner of war status. What they come closest to qualifying for is simply war criminals. So treating them as if they deserved the protections of prisoners of war was a blessing for them.
Moving all these folks into the United States…. how do we ever get them to leave? Why take on this logistical nightmare. If civilian federal trials are what’s needed, then authorize that they take place in Guantanamo.
I’ve quoted you and linked to you here: http://consul-at-arms.blogspot.com/2008/11/re-bad-decision-no-1.html
November 12th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
I think bringing the boys from Gitmo here would provide a terrific opportunity to reinforce the positive trend in the world’s perception of us, which started with our embrace of the One. To demonstrate that we’re really not the kind of people to hold on to a grudge, I suggest that before the boys board the plane for the States we present them with a parting gift from the American people, a nice new pair of Converse sneakers. It might be difficult to find a volunteer to pilot the flight, but with all the advances in drone technology, we ought to be able to surmount that problem.