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Loading...Holder, Congress Clash Over Detainees
Congress and the Department of Justice are at loggerheads about what to do with Guantanamo detainees. On Thursday Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. denounced a Congressional plan that would block the transfer of any detainee to the United States for trial in the federal court system calling it “an extreme and risky encroachment on the authority of the executive branch to determine when and where to prosecute terror suspects.”
The proposal was part of a spending bill passed by the House late on Wednesday and would ban the use of federal money to bring detainees into the country for any purpose, including trial, before the end of the fiscal year next September. Holder reacted by urging Senate leaders to vote against the measure.
The Attorney General was particularly critical of a provision that specifically prohibits the transfer of the alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Holder supports a civilian criminal trial for Mohammed and argued that there was no precedent in the history of this nation to support Congressional intervention to prohibit the prosecution of a specific individual.
This latest dispute marks yet another challenge the Obama administration faces in its efforts to close Guantanamo and transition those detainees to federal custody. Many Republicans and some conservative Democrats support keeping the facility open and trying terror suspects in military tribunals rather than civilian courts. To his credit Attorney General Holder has insisted that our criminal justice system is well-equipped to deal with these suspects and these cases.
And he’s right. Just last month the first Guantanamo detainee tried in a civilian court was convicted of a charge that carries with it a life in prison sentence. Critics attacked the conviction–one charge out of 285 levied against the suspect–as a defeat, all the while ignoring that much of the evidence used to support the other charges was ruled inadmissible because it came as a result of torture or other unlawful conduct by Americans.
It is that fact alone–that in the face of clearly illegal conduct by our own officials our criminal justice system can still conduct a transparent and fair trial, rendering a verdict based on facts and grounded in precedent that Congress is so very wrong here. Embracing our rule of law is the best way to forge a path away from the lawlessness of the Bush years. Congress should have faith in our judiciary to get it right because more often than not they do.
Read more: civil rights, guantanamo, millitary commissions
photo courtesy of takomabibolet via Flickr
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55 comments
+ add your ownHow about trying the torturers and mass murderers who have come to represent America?
You know the ones, haven't you done enough harm to these people after illegally invading their homes and kidnapping torturing and murdering them?
How about prosecuting the americans and israelis who orchestrated the 911 inside job psyop which examination of the evidence clearly proves despite the denials of the international criminals in the US administration who so evilly perpeTraitored that event.
America is utterly disgusting which is why i now boycott everything american.
Evil criminal scumbags rule america and the citizens allow them like gutless brainwashed sheep!
Congress is wrong about not having terrorists transferred from Gitmo and tried them in the US. I think psychologically if the US refused to try these terrorists properly marks the ideal that US is afraid of terrorism. FEAR again has griped the consciousness of the congressmen and women. The only way to formalize a foundation for this consciousness and strength is to try these serial combatants and criminals and to show them not to mess with any Americans.
What a mess, thanks.
Holder is incompetent and should resign.
Thats one of Pres Obamas pledges- to close Guantanamo Prisons, without thinking where to relocate these guys. Now, the burden is there, putting the lives of the citizens at risks while the persons responsible for the order of closure of the prisons are without at risks considering the priviledge of full security in their own quarters... Thats America ! Thanks Jessica.
Thank you for the post.
Noted!!
Thanks for the info.
Thanx for the article
If we give up the rule of law, the terrorists have won. Is that really what the Tea Party wants? Remember, once the laws are breached, they can come for you also--whoever "they" are.
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