Posted on 06/13/2008 12:09:36 PM PDT by DCRoush
John McCain said Friday that the Supreme Court ruling on Guantanamo Bay detainees is “one of the worst decisions in the history of this country.” The presumptive GOP nominee said the decision, a 5-4 ruling Thursday that determined Guantanamo detainees have the right to seek release in civilian courts, would lead to a wave of frivolous challenges. “We are now going to have the courts flooded with so-called … habeas corpus suits against the government, whether it be about the diet, whether it be about the reading material. And we are going to be bollixed up in a way that is terribly unfortunate because we need to go ahead and adjudicate these cases,” he said at a town hall meeting in New Jersey. McCain said he has worked hard to ensure the U.S. military does not torture prisoners but that the detainees at Guantanamo are still “enemy combatants.” “These are people who are not citizens. They do not and never have been given the rights that citizens in this country have,” he said. “Now, my friends, there are some bad people down there. There are some bad people.” Barack Obama released a statement Thursday saying the Supreme Court decision “ensures that we can protect our nation and bring terrorists to justice while also protecting our core values.” “The Court’s decision is a rejection of the Bush administration’s attempt to create a legal black hole at Guantanamo - yet another failed policy supported by John McCain,” he said. “This is an important step toward re-establishing our credibility as a nation committed to the rule of law and rejecting a false choice between fighting terrorism and respecting habeas corpus.”
(Excerpt) Read more at elections.foxnews.com ...
This is a win/win situation for mcloon.
He gets his dream of Gitmo being shut down fulfilled and he is handed the opportunity to attack the decision and show his “conservative” bona fides handed to him on a silver platter.
Talk about the devils own luck...
At least, not to any US facility.
I am reminded of President Andrew Jackson’s response:”John Marshall has made his decision; now, let him enforce it”.
Would that there were such an eloquent President today. But, knowing the Communist congress that we have, they would make that Point #36 to impeach.
Not to mention the fact that if the prisoners had been under the Geneva Conventions, we wouldn't have this problem now. So McCain's being in favor of it has not brought us to where we are now.
In addition, closing Gitmo itself, the physical prison, would not change anything except get it out of the crosshairs of the rest of the world. Same rules would apply.
McCain's demands that Gitmo be closed down gave the court political cover for this foolish ruling.
Frankly, it’s way out of character for John to come down on this issue the way he has. I find him not credible to believe here.
McCain may have heard that Democrat Senator yesterday that said this is the type of bad ruling you get from a CONSERVATIVE court. So Jhon thinks this is a Conservative court he is blasting.
“McLame’s handlers must have told him people were livid and he’d better say something.
After all, he has a very long history of supporting a ruling of this type.”
Not just supported, introduced legislation to that effect.
Senators John McCain, John Warner, and Lindsay Graham – three of the primary authors of this legislation – have argued that this definition “simply establishes the jurisdiction of military commissions” and does not, in any way, authorize the arrest and indefinite detention of those who fall within this broad category.2
http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/usa/qna1006/3.htm
John Warner, John McCain, Lindsay Graham, “Looking Past the Tortured Distortions”, Wall Street Journal¸ October 2, 2006.
You Have the Right to Remain Silent…
McCain, Miranda, and Common Article 3.
September 20, 2006 National Review
“To oversimplify for explanation’s sake, the McCain amendment extends the Fifth Amendment privilege to alien enemy combatants held overseas. It did this for the express purpose of clarifying the meaning of the terms “cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment” (CID) in the United Nations Convention Against Torture. (That itself is ironic because Senator McCain, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, and others who supported the McCain Amendment are now faulting the Bush administration for trying to clarify impossibly vague terms in the Geneva Conventions’ Common Article 3.......
the McCain Amendment literally grants Fifth Amendment protection only insofar as government conduct could be considered “cruel, unusual and inhumane.” (As the McCain Amendment states: “the term ‘cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment’ means the cruel, unusual, and inhumane treatment or punishment prohibited by the Fifth … Amendment” )....
......Here, it is worth remembering (how could we forget?) that the whole purpose of the McCain amendment was to regulate coercive interrogation. The amendment was the direct product of an overwrought debate over something that was already illegal — namely, torture. Its purpose was to crack down on sub-torture conduct (i.e., cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment) as if it were torture so that, henceforth, the United States could not even be credibly accused of torture. ....
......This Supreme Court has already gone out of its way to find that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, which literally relates only to civil wars, somehow governs our patently international conflict with al Qaeda. To come to this conclusion, it had to ignore clear provisions that say Geneva rights, including Common Article 3, are supposed to be enforced diplomatically — i.e., not by courts. Moreover, the same Court has found that questioning which merely fails to alert a suspect that he has a right to counsel is constructively coercive and violates the Fifth Amendment. “
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NGI4MTZjZWE2ODdiNDkzMzA5NjkwZDA3OWU0NGQ1N
Who is this guy, and what has he done with John McCain?
See post #47. He’s having another John Kerry moment.
“Would that there were such an eloquent President today”
Bush has a much better constitutional reason for bucking the court decision than Jackson had. Jackson was wrong.
Then just where would Mcpain put those prisoners if he had his way a Gitmo was shut down?
Every one of the Guantanamo detainees should be quartered in a federal judge’s garage.
Yeah if you run with the "Bring it all down, man" crowd.
1949 - Justice Robert Jackson: Bill of Rights is not a suicide pact.
Today - Justice[s] Robert Jackson [say]: Bill of Rights is not a suicide pact.
(Yes, I believe that Justice Jackson was in the minority in that particular free speech case. But I believe what he said has great merit.)
I am clear on who I am not voting for.
How long before the Supreme Court rules the Constitution unconstitutional?
I will back McCain on this. He’s going to be under huge pressure from the news media to change his view.
LOL, by jove, I think you may be onto something there. Good one.
Hasn’t Ms insane being RAILING against GITMO saying it should be CLOSED??? Well.....it will be now, Johnny!! I hope the terrorists have their trials in the Judge’s NEIGHBORHOODS!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.