The Obama administration announced today that it will create a new "supermax" facility in Thomson, Illinois, and will transfer to it many of the detainees currently held at Guantanamo. Critically, none of those moved to Thomson will receive a trial in a real American court, and some will not be charged with any crime at all. The detainees who will be given trials won't go to Thomson; they'll be moved directly to the jurisdiction where they'll be tried. The ones moved to Thomson will either (a) be put before a military commission or (b) held indefinitely without charges of any kind. In other words, they'll have exactly the same rights -- or lack thereof -- as they have now at Guantanamo.
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I wonder how the right-wing will react? Will they criticize it for not being anti-civil rights enough?
I don't get what the point is of moving some of the terrorists from Gitmo to Thomson is. It doesn't seem like their changing any of the policies at Gitmo, so what's the point? Plus, the Obama administration is still keeping some of the detainees at Gitmo, so now there's going to be a North and a South Gitmo.
ReplyDeleteAgain Teresa, we don't know whether someone is a terrorist until they've actually had a trial. The government can't just lock people in torture dungeons forever and refuse to give them a trial.
ReplyDeleteHabeas corpus protects the innocent as much as the guilty.
http://www.harrybrowne.org/articles/TortureUse.htm
ReplyDeleteCork,
ReplyDeleteI agree. The detainees should not be held indefinitely. But, I do believe that every detainee deserves a military trial instead of in civilian court since they were captured on a battlefield in a foreign country and not in the United States.