Powell Calls for Closing Gitmo Issues Beyond Palo Alto, posted by Anonymous, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Jun 10, 2007 at 5:32 pm
Powell calls for closing Guantanamo Bay and using the normal legal system because Gitmo is undermining faith in the rule of law in America. After six years only one person has been tried under any legal rules from Gitmo and that's only because the Australian pleaded guilty so he could go home.
Posted by Walter_E_Wallis, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Jun 10, 2007 at 6:52 pm
Trials have been delayed by the barratry of insisting that war prisoners are due all the rights and privileges of citizens. War is not a crime. it is war, and anyone who cannot comprehend the difference needs a new line of work.
Posted by Anonymous, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Jun 10, 2007 at 8:45 pm
It's not that Gitmo prisoners were to be tried as citizens but rather that an entirely new and flawed legal framework was established TWICE to try them. It has taken centuries of common law and legal rulings to establish the existing legal system. It isn't surprising that the current administration can't seem to get an entirely new legal system to a point where a judge accept their interpretation. It would have been simpler to have used the existing military justice system in the first place.
Posted by Resident, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Jun 11, 2007 at 7:18 am
The existing military/international law for prisoners caught trying to kill us while not in uniform WAS being used...it is just that dems wanted to change the existing law to treat these guys caught red-handed as if they were citizens and give them a civilian trial, and there has been wrangling ever since. The problem is that this is a war, not against countries with military in uniform, but against non-country sponsored ( at least, that is the official line) individuals who subscribe to the "ideology" that Israel needs to be wiped off the face of the earth and everyone else needs to live by their idea of Islam or die.
Figuring out how to 'try" these folks is what has slowed it all down.
Posted by Anonymous, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Jun 11, 2007 at 8:17 am
Our existing military law does not allow the prosecution to use evidence not available to the defendent nor evidence obtained through torture. The Military tribunals act does not follow existing legal precedents.
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