Some Idiotic Plans for Guantanamo
There are those, of course, mainly in the Military, who oppose closing the Guantanamo camp at all. Others are of the opinion that a new prison camp should be moved stateside, and the prisoners judged before Military Tribunals. I think we can forget about that option.
It is President-elect Obama’s stated intention to sign an executive order to close the Guantanamo prisoner camp, where some 250 suspected terrorists are being held, maybe on the very day of his inauguration. Obama apparently plans that the prisoners be tried before the Federal Judiciary. This raises some problems. Obama would face serious political consequences should any of the 50 Guantanomo prisoners due for release or others who might be released by the courts, commit acts of terror, here or abroad. Among the 61 detainees released so far, the Pentagon has reported they have done just that. It is worth noting too that, by order of a U.S. Judge, 17 Uighurs, Muslims from China, have been ordered set free in the United States. Pentagon lawyers are appealing, and the Uigurs remain in Guantanamo for now. Suffice it to say that the American people, who are split on the question anyway, would take it ill indeed if terrorist prisoners, freed by a liberal administration, did any harm to U.S. citizens. I think “outrage” would be the proper word.
There are more complications yet. !00 prisoners at Guantanamo are considered very dangerous men, including 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged al-Qaida accomplices. Senator Lindsey Graham, R.S.C., who has served several terms in Iraq and is a reserve military lawyer, told the McClatchy Newspaper, “These are warriors, not common criminals. We can create a system to keep them off the battlefield. But that system has to have transparency, due process and checks and balances.” I have a feeling Lindsey did not add “and strict confinement.”
Another question, would those prisoners made to undergo “waterboarding”, which the military, in defiance of members of Congress and Human Rights Organizations, denies is a form of torture, even be eligible for trial? Among others, who say that admissions obtained by torture are inadmissible in courts of law, Kenneth Roth of Human Rights Watch says if legitimate cases cannot be put together, “You…release the person because there are a lot of dangerous people in the world. The danger to the United States is more Guantanamo’s existence than the handful of people being held there. It is helping create the next generation of terrorists.”
The kind of rhetoric Roth uses is nothing but tripe. The reasoning, for example, is that when Israel took arms against Hamas terrorists who were attacking their citizens, they were simply creating more terrorists. The answer, I guess, then is to do nothing, and let your country be attacked without provocation. Ultimately, I suppose the answer is to stop fighting evil, violent men altogether, on the premise that doing so simply encourages them. This leaves the rest of us as victims. It is pure, unadulterated, Grade-A Horse Manure.
Getting back to Guantanamo: efforts have been underway for some time to convince foreign countries to accept the 150 or so considered less-dangerous “small fish” as forms of refugees. Not much success so far. Albania has taken in five of the Chinese Muslims. Shouldn’t be too hard to keep an eye on them.
There are other proposals that promise to make the disposition of the Guantanamo prisoners a lengthy and politically difficult affair. For Heaven’s sake, if Obama is so sympathetic to these terrorists and their associates, then just ship them off to some distant tropical island and deliver supplies on a regular basis. It wouldn’t solve the problem, but it would make the liberals feel all warm and fuzzy.
Look, this is not brain surgery. Those prisoners on Cuba are known or suspected enemies of our country. Try them in the Military courts and imprison those who are convicted for a long time. Execution of Mohammed and his four known associates suggests itself as a pretty good idea. We are a just country. Justice sometimes is harsh.
