The Obama administration is looking at creating a courtroom-within-a-prison complex in the U.S. to house suspected terrorists, combining military and civilian detention facilities at a single maximum-security prison.The only problem is, as Jeralyn says:Several senior U.S. officials said the administration is eyeing a soon-to-be-shuttered state maximum security prison in Michigan and the 134-year-old military penitentiary at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., as possible locations for a heavily guarded site to hold the 229 suspected al-Qaida, Taliban and foreign fighters now jailed at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba.
The officials outlined the plans — the latest effort to comply with President Barack Obama's order to close the prison camp by Jan. 22, 2010, and satisfy congressional and public fears about incarcerating terror suspects on American soil — on condition of anonymity because the options are under review.
So there are two classes of detainees the Administration plans to keep detained without charges or trial or after acquittal or a court-ordered release.And closing Gitmo and reopening this place would be a completely useless gesture on President Obama's part, but hey, he'd be keeping that January 2010 promise.
None of the Gitmo detainees would have any rights still, but at least we won't have to fly detainees as far. Perhaps the guards could get Taco Bell or something, maybe that would keep them from going rogue with the battery cables. Needless to say, yet another President Odubya moment.
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3 comments:
At least conceptually this would be much different from GITMO. Notice that they would have a courtroom right there at the facility. The reason that is key is because then they wouldn't have to transport any prisoners to other states just to try them. Again this is all about theory but you would have to ask yourself why they would go through building a courtroom if they never planned on using it.
Not saying it won't end up being just like GITMO, just saying that's not what the AP is reporting right now.
I would also point you to this blog post by GottaLaff.
http://thepoliticalcarnival.blogspot.com/2009/08/obama-considering-us-military-civilian.html
The courtroom is irrelevant when the detainees would still be held indefinitely.
Unless all of them receive a fair trial in that courtroom (and I hope that you're right) then it's just window-dressing.
And given the administration's performance on this issue so far, I'm not impressed.
However, it may be a start.
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