It starts...Gitmo war crimes court halted at Obama request

[Honu]

The people who kill American service men have the right to a fair trial, habeas corpus, and all the protections that we do under the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, as long as they are in American custody.

bill of rights is a amendment to the constitution ? correct

the first bit of the constitution is
"We the People of the United States"

says nothing about foreign terrorists ? does it !!!!
so they have no rights under the constitution

it was made by the people of the US for the people of the US !!!!


so those that have killed innocent woman and children knowing they set bombs to blow up schools and such
do you also give them a hug and teddy bear and kiss goodnight ?

the people that hide out among civilian populations and blow people up and wont wear a uniform and play by the rules of war are not soldiers and therefor are terrorists

remember those people there are not just some enemy soldiers
sorry you cant go hugging and loving these terrorists
I think the soldiers that did surrender were treated well on the battle field

so where do you put these people then !!!!

[HwyKnight]

We can't treat these guys like common street criminals, because their not. They have perpetrated acts of war against this country and its people. Not to mention the fact that a common trial would bring to light all the tactics employed to apprehend them. This would only be used to make our enemies stronger.

[DocHolliday01]

Although I do not support Obama I agree with his decision to close down that prison. The people who kill American service men have the right to a fair trial, habeas corpus, and all the protections that we do under the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, as long as they are in American custody. They should absolutely not be tortured. I hope every single guilty one of them rots in a 6 x 8 cell the rest of his life, but they do not deserve to be tortured. You say "So much for the Constitution!" yet Congress has not declared war since 1941. Declaring war is the job of Congress, not of some dictatorial President. We've lost tens of thousands of American lives in Korea, Vietnam, the 2 Gulf Wars, and Afghanistan. None of these wars were declared. If you don't believe me, look it up, it's in Article 1, Section 8. Our so called "conservative" former President just presided over the almost complete nationalization of our banking industry, as well as insurance, cars, etc. What about the Constitution there? There is absolutely no place in the Constitution for "bailouts." Our country is $11 trillion dollars in debt, and George W. Bush, our so called "conservative" President, oversaw almost half of that, fighting two unconstitutional wars that are an extreme burden to our financial system. Why aren't you so up in arms over that?

I also do not agree with Obama using an executive order to do it. Congress should have done it long ago, and in the process impeached Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al.

WTF does former President Bush have to do with Obama closing Guantanamo Bay? And where in the hell does it say that Terrorists are intitled to the same rights as you and I? Do you really think that shithead terrorists give our POW's any rights?


In my opinion we fight to win. I'm sick of the US and our Allies being the only ones that play by the rules of war. There should be no rules.

[NetJunkie]

We can't treat these guys like common street criminals, because their not. They have perpetrated acts of war against this country and its people. Not to mention the fact that a common trial would bring to light all the tactics employed to apprehend them. This would only be used to make our enemies stronger.

How do you know you have the right person? That's the point of the trial. Everyone rounded up isn't going to be guilty of the acts you describe. There are plenty of people with grievances turning their neighbors in as terrorists and taking some reward money. I'd sure want a trial.

[Gutshot John]

I think there is a bit of confusion about these trials and their application.

1. We are under no obligation to try anyone captured on a battlefield. An EPW can be held indefinitely without trial per the laws of war.

2. SCOTUS did NOT say Gitmo detainees were entitled to a trial simply by being an EPW. SCOTUS said that if you're going to give them criminal trials, you can't hold them indefinitely THEN try them when it's convenient. Likewise IF you were going to try them, than you had to be consistent with at least some Constitutional standards.

3. The question of a trial is something that the US decides to do. Once the US decides to try an EPW, his status changes and he is now a criminal defendant. He must be shown due process, and released promptly if he is not convicted. The US can avoid this outcome, simply by refusing to put him on trial.

4. Criminal defendants are entitled to Constitutional protections of due process etc. No matter WHO they are and WHERE they came from. If he is NOT to be tried, he can be held indefinitely.

5. We play by rules because we are better than they are. If we do not hold ourselves to a higher standard than we are no different.

That said, Obama is making something of a mistake. I doubt there is going to be much restraint for AQ on the battlefield if the individual soldier feels that the BG is just going to go free. Obama's policy is begging for "war crimes" to be committed on his watch.

[diving dave]

The hardcore jihadist types around the world will see this as one thing:WEAKNESS.... The new comander in chief may think he's restoring America's credibilty, but if we go back to the Clinton years of hoping the world will love us, we are begging to get hit again. Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.

[shadowalker]

Obama was going to immediately close Gitmo, then he was going to do it within a month, then 90 days and now within a year, we'll see what actually happens. Whether they are citizens or not I am not for holding people indefinitely without considering the evidence against them, that gives our incompetent federal government WAY too much power. I also don't think that our domestic justice system is the place to deal with them though, I'm glad I'm not the one making the decision.

The same thing has happened with withdrawing troops from Iraq and getting rid of the tax cuts (which he now says he wont do immediately because it is a bad time).

I think a lot changes when you become the President and start getting intelligence information the average citizen doesn't, suddenly you become aware that the options available to you are limited and sometimes they are no good choices.

What Obama claims to believe in scares me, in particular disarming Americans. But he is also a politican and they see their job to get elected. As much as he scares me and as much as I didn't want him he is now our president and I will give him a chance until he screws me, that said I will keep a VERY close eye on him and prepare.

I disagree with almost everything I've heard him say but I do believe he is a good father and a good man. He may well turn out to be a good president, only time will tell.

[JBnTX]

Am I understanding this correctly?

1. Liberals DO NOT want to put the terrorists on trial?
2. Liberals DO want to put George Bush on trial?

[vinegar_joe]

I imagine that one unintended effect this will have is that there will be many more headshots and far fewer prisoners taken in Afghanistan.

[texasrangers]

I wish everyone (except Gutshot) would have gotten my intended point about how our leaders have completely disregarded the "Supreme Law of the Land:, i.e, the Constitution. Even though they have all sworn to "preserve, protect, and defend" it, from "all enemies, foreign and [I]domestic[I], only one elected representative in Congress actually meant it. They have put our country on the path to total financial collapse with unconstitutional, undeclared wars, which force us to borrow more and more; the trillions of dollars in bailouts and Federal Reserve hand outs over the years; the massive welfare state, and so on, and so on. Everyone who reads this should look up the Communist Manifesto and see that 2 of Marx' ten plancks have been in existence in our country since 1913: A central bank (the Fed), which centralizes credit in the hands of the state, and a heavy progressive income tax. Its time to wake up to these injustices and get mad. And I do believe that every single person from that detention camp should be put on trial, and not tortured. If anyone would take the time to research the facts, they would find that many of the people we imprisoned there for multiple years were in fact innocent. As someone pointed out, people turn in their enemies for a reward. It is a terrible system. Hopefully Obama, and it may be the one decent thing he does, will give all of the detainees a quick, fair trial, and those found guilty will rot, and those who are innocent can go back to some semblance of their former lives.