Obama's Asst Atty Gen. Tells Senate: Terrorists Captured on Battlefield Have Constitutional Rights

cnsnews ^ | 7/8/09 | Penny Starr

[Nachum]

(CNSNews.com) – At a Senate hearing Tuesday on the use of military commissions to prosecute terrorists being held at Guantanamo Bay, some members of the Armed Services Committee took offense at the Obama administration’s view that the detainees should have the same legal protections under the Constitution as U.S. citizens.

Ranking member Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) questioned Assistant Attorney General David Kris about his remarks on the appropriateness of administering the Miranda warning to terrorist suspects captured abroad. "It is the administration's view that there is a serious risk that courts would hold that admission of involuntary statements of the accused in military commission proceedings is unconstitutional," Kris said in his opening statement

[Nachum]

When are Americans going to get the pitchforks?

[Nachum]

The list, ping

[Gaffer]

David Kris is not an “American” and has no understanding of what it takes to be one.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

This might have slowed our progress a little during WWII. Especially difficult would have been reading rights to kamikaze pilots. Perhaps radio would have worked.

[K-oneTexas]

Throwing the BS Flag here!!!

Terrorists caught on the battlefield or elsewhere who are not American citizens have no rights under the Constitution.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

I sure wish they would notice my constitutional rights! They want to pick and choose.

[True Republican Patriot]

OBOZO couldn’t get hired to be the night manager of a Mickey D’s!! and the RATS cheated him in to OUR SUPREME LEADER POSITION!! OUTRAGEOUS!!

[marron]

Every platoon should have a forensics technician assigned to it to gather crime scene evidence.

They are going to need a lot of yellow tape.

And they should have a corps of criminal lawyers assigned to defend the enemy combatants in court. Process servers to serve subpoenas on the enemy combatants prior to any attack (and judges to issue the attack warrants which have to be requested in advance along with legal briefs detailing probable cause).

Civil lawyers can be assigned to the enemy combatants afterward to help them get any indemnity payments they may have coming.

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

But Americans who oppose abortion and gay”marriage” don’t have any rights.

[Taylor42]

Simple enough, No prisoners!

None, nada, not ever. When in doubt call in an air strike.

[SpinnerWebb]

The fact is they are entitled to protections under the Geneva Convention, which apply to the rules of war,” McCain said

This is not necessarily true, either. Most of the muslim countries that are providing today's "enemy combatants" did not sign the Geneva Convention.

[freekitty]

Except for Americans who are preceived as domestic terrorists.

[greyfoxx39]

From the article:

“I applaud this committee’s initiative to reform the military commission act. I think the military commission should be a viable ready alternative for national security reasons to deal with those who violate the laws of war, and I’m glad we’re having this discussion right now, and I thank the committee,” Johnson said.
 
“When you’re dealing with terrorists whose, and I’m going to say this on behalf of the administration, one of their fundamental aims is to kill innocent civilians, and so it is the administration’s view that direct violence on innocent civilians, let’s say in the continental United States, it might be appropriate that that person be brought to justice in a civilian public forum in the continental United States,” Johnson said.
 
“Because the act of violence that was committed here was a violation of Title 18 (federal criminal law), as well as the law of war, so we feel strongly that both alternatives should exist,” Johnson added.

Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)

“Well, I respectfully disagree,” Lieberman said. “These are people we believe are war criminals; that’s why we captured them. The greater legal protections of the terrorists because they have chosen to do something that pretty much has not been done before in our history to attack Americans, to kill people here in America, as they did on 9/11, civilians, innocents, it doesn’t matter, and to do it outside of uniform.
 
 “So it puts us in a very odd position, giving these terrorists greater protections in our federal courts than we’ve given war criminals in any other time throughout our history, even though, in my opinion, they are at least as brutal and inhumane, probably more brutal and inhumane than any war criminals,” Lieberman said.
 
“Yes, it might also be an act of murder that killed people who were in the Trade Towers on 9/11, but it was an act of war,” Lieberman said. “And the people who did that do not deserve the same constitutional protections of those accused of murder in New York City.”
 
The hearing focused on the military commissions portion of the National Defense Authorization Bill for Fiscal Year 2010, which includes changes to the Military Commission Act of 2006.

[marron]

When in doubt call in an air strike.

Just make sure you've got that warrant. :)

[LibLieSlayer]

mccain is a fool, an idiot, traitorous and a horrible Naval aviator.

LLS

[shadeaud]

Give the captured terrorists a coupon book for their virgins. Should they choose to redeem their coupons then by all means we must accommodate them. If they refuse to redeem their coupons, then they are admitting they are not true believers in their Allah and should be handed over to the Taliban with a note explaining how they have allowed fraudulent Muslims pretend to be for their cause, but have shown their true colors. Let the Taliban cut off their heads which results in a win-win situation.

[Sgt_Schultze]

Why should they disagree with the administration? The current occupant of the office of president is a “Constitutional scholar,” isn’t he?

[lula]

Why Capture? KILL TERRORISTS! There, problem solved!!!!

[Roccus]

Jeh C. Johnson is the Jackie Childs of the Pentagon.

[MrEdd]

Bush’s fault.

Really, in this case. You don’t offer quarter to combatants not wearing uniforms. These people should never have been captured.