New Marching Orders
By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Friday, December 19, 2008; 12:13 PM
The military is gearing up to carry out the orders of the new commander in chief. And one of the first orders may be one of the most meaningful: To shutter the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Peter Finn writes in The Washington Post: "Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates instructed his staff to have a blueprint in place by the time of the inauguration in case Obama decides the closure of the facility is one of his 'first orders of business,' said Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell. . . .
"Any plan will probably address whether to also abolish the military commission system and, if so, what kind of legal framework can be substituted to put detainees on trial. The U.S. government will have to negotiate homes in third countries for as many as 60 detainees who have been cleared for release but cannot be returned to countries such as Uzbekistan and Libya because of fears they will be tortured. And the next administration will have to find or build appropriate detention facilities in the United States, as well as negotiate with local and state authorities who may not want terrorist suspects housed in prisons in their areas. . . .
"Anthony D. Romero, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, welcomed Morrell's announcement as an important signal of Obama's intention to follow through on statements made during the campaign. 'This is an important first step toward turning the page on eight years of shameful policies that allowed torture and violations of domestic and international law,' he said in a statement."
David Morgan writes for Reuters: "'If this is one of the president-elect's first orders of business, the secretary wants to be prepared to help him as soon as possible,' Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters. . . .
"Defense officials said the task of closing Guantanamo is likely to be a lengthy, complex process that would involve all three branches of the government.
"'You look at this sort of thing early because that's when you have momentum for bringing about change. With a new administration coming in, you've got people who are willing to do what's necessary,' said one defense official."
From the transcript of Morrell's briefing yesterday: "I think fundamentally the motivation for the secretary in this -- in this respect is not just the fact that he believes that closure is the right thing, but that the president-elect has made it perfectly clear throughout the course of the campaign that this -- that he wishes to address this issue early on in his administration. And so the secretary wants to be prepared to assist him in trying to figure out a solution to this thorny problem."
Amanda Terkel of Thinkprogress.org caught Gates talking to PBS's Charlie Rose Wednesday night. Asked about closing Guantanamo, Gates replied: "Well, I think that there are some problems that need to be dealt with, probably in statute, to be able to close it. I think that we can provide alternatives to it. . . .
"I think these problems are solvable. And my guess is --
Rose: "So on balance, you would like to see it -- "
Gates: "I would like to see it closed. And I think it will be a high priority for the new administration."
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I know I am one of the enlisted people, so my opinion does not count for much, but to me the simple solution to the "trial" problem is for them to use the military court system and the rules they use for our own military members accused of a crime the Uniformed Code if Military Justice otherwise known as the UCMJ, it has been used for death penalty crimes, read about the death of Private Slovik, does the system make mistakes, yes but it is about as fair as fair goes, it governs the lives of millions of Americans in uniform. In other words use the General Court Martial for the "terrorist trials" even for KSM, it would be a fair trial, probably even more fair the these tribunals the Bush Administration dreamed up.
Who could then claim the system was NOT fair, and the Military Courts are not going to allow "illegal evidence" to be entered into the trials, I think Hamdan is a perfect example of how fair a Military Court Martial can be, despite the Bush Administration claiming Hamdan was one of the worst of the worst, the Officers on the Jury saw Hamdan for what he was a young man trying to feed his family and was nothing more than a driver, who just happened to work for one of the most evil men in the world, but do we execute him for that? Did we try Hitlers driver and charge him for Hitler's crimes? I don't think so and if they did it would have been just as wrong.
End the fiasco known as Gitmo, transfer the detainees to the brig at Charleston SC and then send them to Leavenworth to complete their prison sentences, anyone found guilty and sentenced to life however should be sent to Supermax, and the ones like KSM that get the death penalty should be transferred to the federal prison where they executed Timothy McVeigh.
I know I am not a Cabinet level person, but this seems to be the sanest way to handle this mess. If we are a nation of laws, then we need to behave as such and get rid of this Kangaroo Court system they created for these "terror war criminals".
Just my 2 cents......
Monday, December 22, 2008
New Marching Orders
