BlackFive

UPDATE: Some folks are disagreeing with me in the comments for positions I don't hold, so a clarification.

When did I sign on for anything more than tribunals?

Military defense lawyer
No right to call witnesses
No access to any classified info

Now this may cause some to be set free, but if we don't have enough evidence to meet this low bar, why are we holding the person?

The war against the jihadis is likely to never end with any surrender that would allow us to return prisoners like WWII. We are going to hold these bastards until they die, and we will catch and hold more before we are done. We need to have a process that validates the battlefield detention, if we are going to lock someone up for life.

Cordially,

Uncle J

The Bush administration manages to be both right and wrong in the many cases of detainees held in Guantanamo. Right in their position that the detainees have no rights under our Constitution and cannot challenge their captivity in US courts, and wrong in not having held tribunals charging them with terrorism against the US and sentencing them to life or death.

I don't often find common cause with the left, but I am forced to agree with them that it is un-American to hold prisoners without charges or some trial. It has been six years for many of these folks, and the administration squandered the opportunity to make a precedent and try and convict them in military tribunals. The Republicans even controlled both houses of Congress and the American people were very comfortable about "bringing people to justice" as W likes to say.

Well, where is the justice? We brought them to Gitmo, but we seem incapable of delivering on the justice.

Today we have a lawyer arguing in front of the Supreme Court that these folks deserve the full fruits of protections the US Constitution affords you and me. Wrong. But they also argue that Gitmo is essentially US soil and that may be the point on which this case turns. That would be a shame and a failure of the administration to take action. Many of these folks are admitted jihadis who have stated categorically that they will kill as many infidels as they can if released. So, we obviously can't release them. But we need to hold a legal proceeding and then sentence them.

Much of the furor about Gitmo focuses on the fact that we are holding people without charges or trial and which happens to be true. Why do we give ammo to these people? If we had already done that, what else is there to complain about? Gitmo is the nicest prison on earth, conditions are better than any other lock up. We need somewhere to stash people whose avowed intent is to destroy us and our society. Let's remove the only valid complaint about it and then just MoveOn.