Posted on 11/11/2008 9:01:25 PM PST by Kukai
Barack Obama, the US president-elect, has said repeatedly that he will shut down the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and is now faced with decisions about how to proceed.
Rights groups have urged Obama to move swiftly once he begins his White House term in January.
Around 250 prisoners remain in the camp - most held without charge or trial - including 50 or so that have been cleared for release but cannot be returned to their home countries, the US government says, for fear of torture and persecution. Two, including Osama bin Laden's former driver, have already faced full military tribunals, set up by the Bush administration to try the detainees, but widely condemned as unfair by rights groups.
Aides to Obama say he remains committed to closing Guantanamo and trying the remaining detainees.
"President-Elect Obama said throughout his campaign that the legal framework at Guantanamo has failed to successfully and swiftly prosecute terrorists, and he shares the broad bipartisan belief that Guantanamo should be closed," Denis McDonough, an advisor to Obama on foreign policy, said in a statement on Monday.
There are several options now on the table for the new administration.
Obama aides have also said Guantanamo's remaining detainees could be prosecuted in federal criminal courts.
Doing so in the US would grant the detainees legal rights equivalent to those of citizens, thus creating a host of problems for prosecutors.
John Cornyn, a Republican senate judiciary committee member, says it would be a "colossal mistake to treat terrorism as a mere crime".
"It would be a stunning disappointment if one of the new administration's first priorities is to give foreign terror suspects captured on the battlefield the same legal rights and protections as American citizens accused of crimes,'' he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at english.aljazeera.net ...
doesn’t matter what he does.
the “dinosaur media” will spin it to obamao’s advantage.
“Around 250 prisoners remain in the camp - most held without charge or trial - including 50 or so that have been cleared for release but cannot be returned to their home countries,.....”
When all is said an done, they will wind up in our neighborhoods.
I despise liberals.
There’s always the Lincoln bedroom to put a handful of them up in.
on our tax dollar!
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