What's Stopping Him?
President Bush spoke in Vienna.
I'm sure the lawyers assigned to defend the detainees will be happy to hear that the President now feels they need to be tried in US courts, and brought to justice. Since many people have been working hard for years to overcome the administration's opposition to that, it will come as quite a surprise.
In fact, the very existence of a detention center at Guantanamo was a deliberate attempt to avoid US courts, because its location gave the administration a pretext to claim that those held there were outside of the jurisdiction of US law, with those pesky 'habeas corpus' things.
It's probably also a surprise to all those folks at the Solicitor General's office who spent years in court fighting to prevent the detainees from having any rights to any sort of US court, even a military one, to hear that the President feels this way. How the President must like them, keeping them employed for the last few years doing exactly the opposite of what he now says he wants. What a guy, to put their interests ahead of his own. It was some sort of an employment-assistance program for constitutional lawyers, I guess.
Now that the President has shared with us his true desire, I guess he'll start acting on it. After all, he is the Commander-in-Chief, and Guantanamo is entirely a military facility. If he wants it to end, he could give the order, and I think not even the most rabid leftist critic would claim it was some kind of executive overreach.
True, trying the detainees in a US court might turn out to be problematic, what with our courts' quaint ideas about rules of evidence, and the right of the defense to see the evidence against the accused, and that expectation that the authorities treat the prisoner humanely. You know, what we in the United States call justice. If only their journey to that US court hadn't, for some reason, been inexplicably delayed.
And, in the US system, having the President tell the world that you are a cold-blooded killer might be seen as prejudicial, but I guess we can work that out. When people who work in the White House get tangled up in legal proceedings, he falls all over himself to avoid saying anything, but these guys in Guantanamo, who he says he wants in a US court, he's willing to call 'cold-blooded killers.' That's confusing. Maybe he can get Michael Gerson to clean up the rhetoric there, before he leaves.
The New York Times coverage suggests that Bush seemed 'almost apologetic for the continuing existence of the prison camp.' Poor guy. But if, as he says, he'd like to end it, I have an idea.
Go right ahead.
Bush acknowledged European concerns about the 460 detainees the United States is holding at Guantanamo Bay because of their suspected ties to al-Qaida and Taliban. But he said some are dangerous individuals that need to be brought to justice.My reaction upon hearing about these comments on the radio was "Uh, WHAT?!"
"I understand their concerns," Bush said. "I'd like to end Guantanamo. I'd like it to be over with."
Bush said that 200 detainees had been sent home, and that of the 460 remaining, most are from Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Afghanistan.
"There are some who need to be tried in U.S. courts," Bush said. "They're cold-blooded killers. They will murder somebody if they are let out on the street."
I'm sure the lawyers assigned to defend the detainees will be happy to hear that the President now feels they need to be tried in US courts, and brought to justice. Since many people have been working hard for years to overcome the administration's opposition to that, it will come as quite a surprise.
In fact, the very existence of a detention center at Guantanamo was a deliberate attempt to avoid US courts, because its location gave the administration a pretext to claim that those held there were outside of the jurisdiction of US law, with those pesky 'habeas corpus' things.
It's probably also a surprise to all those folks at the Solicitor General's office who spent years in court fighting to prevent the detainees from having any rights to any sort of US court, even a military one, to hear that the President feels this way. How the President must like them, keeping them employed for the last few years doing exactly the opposite of what he now says he wants. What a guy, to put their interests ahead of his own. It was some sort of an employment-assistance program for constitutional lawyers, I guess.
Now that the President has shared with us his true desire, I guess he'll start acting on it. After all, he is the Commander-in-Chief, and Guantanamo is entirely a military facility. If he wants it to end, he could give the order, and I think not even the most rabid leftist critic would claim it was some kind of executive overreach.
True, trying the detainees in a US court might turn out to be problematic, what with our courts' quaint ideas about rules of evidence, and the right of the defense to see the evidence against the accused, and that expectation that the authorities treat the prisoner humanely. You know, what we in the United States call justice. If only their journey to that US court hadn't, for some reason, been inexplicably delayed.
And, in the US system, having the President tell the world that you are a cold-blooded killer might be seen as prejudicial, but I guess we can work that out. When people who work in the White House get tangled up in legal proceedings, he falls all over himself to avoid saying anything, but these guys in Guantanamo, who he says he wants in a US court, he's willing to call 'cold-blooded killers.' That's confusing. Maybe he can get Michael Gerson to clean up the rhetoric there, before he leaves.
The New York Times coverage suggests that Bush seemed 'almost apologetic for the continuing existence of the prison camp.' Poor guy. But if, as he says, he'd like to end it, I have an idea.
Go right ahead.
posted by Paul at 8:21 AM |
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