Powell Says Close Gitmo

No ones life is at risk if the Microsoft source code were to be leaked. We have many operational people in the field and working underground that could stand to lose quite a lot if some secrets were exposed publicly.

It hasn't happened so that couldn't possibly have demanded it yet. Do you somehow doubt that it would happen though? Have you looked at the looney left these days?

How many court martial trials have tried suspected terrorists?

I thought court martials were for our own soldiers that committed crimes, not for terrorists.

I think it was created to enforce the UCMJ, Thomas, primarily for members of our own military. That doesn't exactly fit terrorists captured somewhere.

There are lots of problems in terms of evidence collection and everything else.

You are quite trusting, I must say, Okie

Cycloptichorn

Thomas, I will need to brush up on the details of this. What I do know is that the lawyers and the military have not resorted to this yet for I am sure very good reasons.

Five years after the first prisoners arrived at Guantanamo Bay, the detention camp is set for a new phase in the coming months with the start of military tribunals held under a law passed by the US Congress last September.
However, only some 75 of the 395 prisoners there at the moment are likely to face these tribunals, at least in the initial stages. For the rest, there is the prospect of indefinite detention without trial.

In all some 775 prisoners have been at the camp since 11 January 2002. Just under half, 379, have been released.

Fourteen detainees are high-profile prisoners, who had been held at secret CIA prisons elsewhere and who were sent to Guantanamo Bay last September.

Cycloptichorn wrote:

You are quite trusting, I must say, Okie

Cycloptichorn

Come on, Okie already admitted he needs to brush up on the details of this. That's a promising start. No need to jump on him for giving his government the benefit of the doubt.

This link's debate seems to capture the debate about this about the best.

Without going into detail, Thomas, I think it should be self evident that the conditions of war do not lend themselves to the requirements of a traditional court system where evidence, witnesses, and other considerations are entered into the equation.

In regard to the court martial, again, I have not gotten very far in reading about that, but it is apparent it is meant first and foremost for the members of our own military.

You make the same argument here that we are dealing with a civilian problem, not a war problem. Are our soldiers supposed to read the enemy his rights before he shoots him or gets shot? How many times does this point have to be repeated here?

Soon after he was confirmed as Secretary of Defense, Bob Gates began to advocate closing down Guantanamo Bay, The New York Times, reports. He argued that the base "had become so tainted abroad that legal proceedings at Guantanamo would be viewed as illegitimate."

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice backed him up. But they had a powerful contingent opposing them:

Mr. Gates's arguments were rejected after Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and some other government lawyers expressed strong objections to moving detainees to the United States, a stance that was backed by the office of Vice President Dick Cheney, administration officials said.
...[T]he high-level discussions about closing Guantánamo came to a halt after Mr. Bush rejected the approach, although officials at the National Security Council, the Pentagon and the State Department continue to analyze options for the detention of terrorism suspects.


The main logic for Cheney's and Gonzales' opposition was two-fold. First and foremost was the reason that Gitmo was created, because bringing the prisoners to American soil would make things much more complicated -- because of American law. Second was that, even though Bush has said that he wants to eventually close Gitmo, "closing it would be seen as a public admission of an incorrect policy" (i.e. much better for Bush to go back on his word than reverse a disastrous policy).

For now, Gates and Rice are on the losing side of the debate. But that might not last too much longer:

Even so, one senior administration official who favors the closing of the facility said the battle might be renewed.
"Let's see what happens to Gonzales," that official said, referring to speculation that Mr. Gonzales will be forced to step down, or at least is significantly weakened, because of the political uproar over the dismissal of United States attorneys. "I suspect this one isn't over yet."