Feinstein on Gitmo: Feinstein's Guantánamo Prison Blues (Trying To Close Gitmo)

Weekly Standard ^ | 07/30/2007, Volume 012, Issue 43

[lowbridge]

Feinstein's Guantánamo Prison Blues

Dianne Feinstein is sponsoring an amendment to next year's defense authorization bill that would force the president to close the terrorist detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, within one year and restrict the executive's authority to transfer the detainees to brigs outside the United States. The California Democrat and her 15 cosponsors in the Senate--including Nebraska Republican Chuck Hagel--would also require that the president submit to Congress a report providing "legal justification" for detaining "any individual" under the new, congressionally mandated policy.

You can expect a flurry of litigation and strengthened demands to treat terrorists (including those who are not U.S. citizens and are captured outside the United States) as common criminals--enjoying full Miranda rights and other constitutional protections--if the Feinstein amendment were to pass.

What THE SCRAPBOOK finds interesting is that just a few years ago, Feinstein had a different idea of how to deal with America's jihadist enemies, who are members of no army and who wear no uniform in battle. In interviews with reporters in early 2002, Feinstein voiced full support for the president's detention, interrogation, and Guantánamo policies. The Guantánamo detainees "are people, if you release them, they're going to go out and kill again," Feinstein told ABC News on January 28, 2002. The next day, in an article in the Alameda Times-Star, Feinstein said, "It's very important to be able to interrogate these prisoners."

The Times-Star reporter noted: "Feinstein also gave support to the Bush administration on the question of whether the prisoners [at Guantánamo] should be classified prisoners of war and covered under the Geneva Convention."

And then a day after that, the New York Post quoted Feinstein saying, "I'll be very candid with you. I would much rather be here"--that is, in Guantánamo--"in an 8 by 8 [foot] cell with a breeze, than locked down in Folsom prison in California. This is not an egregious situation."

Of course, the Feinstein amendment would require the president to move the detainees to places like Folsom prison--places that, five years ago, Feinstein thought were actually worse than the prison where the detainees are held currently. So what happened?

"My comments were made in January of 2002, shortly after the facility was opened," Feinstein said in a statement to THE SCRAPBOOK. "It was a very different time, and the comments are now out of date. The problem now is that many detainees have been held, in most cases without charge, for over five years under a lesser system of justice and with no hope of having their status clarified."

Yes, January 2002 was a very different time. It was back when most Democrats were still serious about fighting the war on terrorism.

[rfp1234]

Frankenfeinstein ping.

[dblshot]

I can hear the Dems a coming, they’ve gone around the bend
They say that Gitmo prison must come to and end
They’re getting plenty of sunshine and sitting on their rear ends
But the terrorists are stuck in prison and their time is dragging on

I bet there’s rich politicians in a fancy dining car
Trying to be the first to win a big fat cigar
By letting Abdul put bombs in some more cars just watch you die
So DiFi faces towards Mecca and heeds Bin Laden’s cry

[Beckwith]

Feinstein has a lovely home — perhaps Dubya can send them to stay with her.

[squarebarb]

It’s all about the trial lawyers.

[Enchante]

Typical ‘RATS and RINOs, always far more concerned about coddling TERRORISTS than about actually keeping the evil vicious mass murderers off the streets. These clowns will have our civilian legal system all tied up in knots trying to handle cases of ILLEGAL COMBATANTS who have no business getting near a US civilian court. Naturally, the ‘RATs and RINOs will ensure that all sorts of sensitive counter-terrorism intel has to be spilled into the public realm if we are to have a chance of keeping these TERRORISTS locked up.

[freekitty]

She can move the prisoners into her new home. I am sure it would accomdate them.