Powell Says Close Gitmo

Gates, who took over the Pentagon after Rumsfeld was forced out last year, has said Congress and the administration should work together to allow the U.S. to permanently imprison some of the more dangerous Guantanamo Bay detainees elsewhere so the facility can be closed.

What's your objection to imprisoning them in the United States?

We'd just have to listen to more squealing from the Left.

HokieBird wrote:

We'd just have to listen to more squealing from the Left.

It's interesting that you would consider Gates or Powell part of "the Left".

But I understand your concerns. In fact, following a strict "out of sight, out of mind" doctrine is quite a smart thing to do if you believe that the Constitution and the Geneva Conventions are not worth the paper they're written on.

Of course, regarding the bit about the Constitution, the Supreme Court did in fact disagree with the Bush admin's point of view, stating that the prisoners in Guantanamo are held "in custody in violation of the Constitution or laws or treaties of the United States."

It's a pity that there's no court that can hold the United States accountable for unilaterally declaring the GC not applicable.

It's a pity that there's no court that can hold the United States accountable for unilaterally declaring the GC not applicable.

See? Just what I mean. After the last light is turned off at Gitmo, you'll still be flapping your lips.

What's your objection to imprisoning them in the United States?

[object Object]

Quote:

[pink underwear]

is that the latest idiot buzzword?

HokieBird, I understand that you are so far right on this issue that the Secretary of Defense looks like a communist to you. But at least he seems to agree with the notion that the Constitution has some meaning.

Seriously, sometimes I have the impression that for the far right the entire Constitution consists only of the Second Amendment.

I don't think any court has said the detainees have rights under the Constitution. I think I remember reading that an appeals court actually said the opposite. I also don't think the Supreme Court has taken the case...yet.

I think I've said before I have no problem releasing them.

[stereotypical rightwing babble]

Now, however, lawyers representing the Guantanamo prisoners will have to go through that lower court before they appeal again to the Supreme Court.

Quote:

Now, however, lawyers representing the Guantanamo prisoners will have to go through that lower court before they appeal again to the Supreme Court.

Which is the reason why the Supreme Court refused to hear the case.

However, Jarallah al-Marri challenged his detention in Guantanamo and brought the case to the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. And, as you know, the court granted al-Marri's petition and held that the 2006 MCA did not deprive aliens of their right under the US Constitution to file a petition of habeas corpus.

Officials near decision to close Gitmo

Thu Jun 21

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is nearing a decision to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and move the terror suspects there to military prisons elsewhere, The Associated Press has learned.

President Bush's national security and legal advisers are expected to discuss the move at the White House on Friday and, for the first time, it appears a consensus is developing, senior administration officials said Thursday.

The advisers will consider a new proposal to shut the center and transfer detainees to one or more Defense Department facilities, including the maximum security military prison at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, where they could face trial, said the officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing internal deliberations.

Officials familiar with the agenda of the Friday meeting said Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff, National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Peter Pace were expected to attend.

It was not immediately clear if the meeting would result in a final recommendation to Bush.

Previous plans to close Guantanamo have run into resistance from Cheney, Gonzales and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. But officials said the new suggestion is gaining momentum with at least tacit support from the State and Homeland Security departments, the Pentagon, and the Intelligence directorate.

Cheney's office and the Justice Department have been dead set against the step, arguing that moving "unlawful" enemy combatant suspects to the U.S. would give them undeserved legal rights.

They could still block the proposal, but pressure to close Guantanamo has been building since a Supreme Court decision last year that found a previous system for prosecuting enemy combatants illegal. Recent rulings by military judges threw out charges against two terrorism suspects under a new tribunal scheme.

Those decisions have dealt a blow to the administration's efforts to begin prosecuting dozens of Guantanamo detainees regarded as the nation's most dangerous terror suspects.

In Congress, recently introduced legislation would require Guantanamo's closure. One measure would designate Fort Leavenworth as the new detention facility.

Another bill would grant new rights to those held at Guantanamo Bay, including access to lawyers regardless of whether the prisoners are put on trial. Still another would allow detainees to protest their detentions in federal court, something they are now denied.

Gates, who took over the Pentagon after Rumsfeld was forced out last year, has said Congress and the administration should work together to allow the U.S. to permanently imprison some of the more dangerous Guantanamo Bay detainees elsewhere so the facility can be closed.

Military officials told Congress this month that the prison at Fort Leavenworth has 70 open beds and that the brig at a naval base in Charleston, S.C., has space for an additional 100 prisoners.