update on my last post

[kierthos]

Bush to transfer, try terror suspects

This actually appears to be the lead-in article. Bush is having 14 suspected terrorist leaders transferred from secret CIA prisons to Gitmo. Then he wants to try them in the manner I mentioned earlier. (You know, getting a law passed to do what SCOTUS already said he couldn't do aka military tribunals, allowing hearsay evidence, and removing the defendant's right to remain silent).

It gets better. (well, worse, really)

His new proposal, to be sent to Congress, would withhold evidence from a defendant if necessary to protect classified information.

"Yeah, we have this evidence to present to the court, but we're not going to show it to the defendant, so there's no way he can mount a defense against it, but he's going to have to trust us, it shows he's guilty. Of everything. Including some stuff we just made up."

Now, don't confuse this with any sort of sympathy for terrorists. It's not. But we should not be undercutting the legal system in order to convict people on terrorism charges. I mean, how fucking easy does Bush want to make it to get a conviction? Is all their evidence so weak that he needs to do this to look even tougher on terrorism then he already thinks he is?

Mr. President, did you ever take a civics class? If so, what was your grade in it?

Comments

[opheliareborn.livejournal.com]

Actually I thought some of the Guantanamo prisoners WERE Americans, but there I go, reading the news instead of just watching videos and making heated decisions. Those videos were intended to infuriate those who watched them and to stoke fires of hate. We need to being to overcome that reaction and be able to think clearly about this or it will degrade the fabric of our society. What sort of precedent does this set? If we truly want to be a bastion of freedom, we really can't pick and choose when and who we apply rules like the right to a fair trial.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not sympathetic to the terrorist's cause. And, while I have moments of fervently wishing we could nuke them all, logically I know we can't. We have to go slowly and think or we really will lose everything.

[kierthos.livejournal.com]

None of the ones on the list of names that were released by the DoD were United States citizens. The vast majority are from countries in the Middle East or near the Middle East.

Approximately 250 of the roughly 750 detainees at Gitmo have been freed or released to the custody of their home countries, and some of those that were released to the custody of their home countries were quickly freed as there was no evidence to justify their continued incarceration. Others have been held for years pending any sort of trial, or in some cases, even charges.

Then you have this:

Al Hakim, A'Del Abdu: Determind to be innocent, still detained.