Only if caught in battle (in which case why take them prisoner?) Otherwise they are just people accused of being criminals, and entitled to all the protections that status carries with it.

I'm with you. There is no need for any exemption from habeas corpus to last more than a few days, EVER. If these people have committed crimes then charge and try them. Otherwise release them. "Permanent emergencies" are the way democratic countries convert to dictatorships. If this is allowed to happen here, we'll have to fight a war to get our country back.

As much of a mess as he has made, let's hope he punctuates his presidency with this sort of non-ignorable totalitarian behavior that will illustrate what a clown he and his kind are. Maybe he'll issue an executive order that all kids have the same grades.

You obtain no information that way.

The military prison they are held in is not outside the legal system, only outside the civilian criminal system. They are not criminals, they are savage terrorists caught in action.

Congress approved going overseas for the war on terror twice. The Geneva convention, for whatever it's worth at all, doesn't apply to terrorists not part of an army. There is nothing illegal about holding them prisoner when caught.

"I am all for releasing these people held extra-legally and put under torture. "
It's disgraceful. Charge them with a crime or release them. If the criminal justice system can be circumvented just by a gov't official condemning suspects with an epithet, we really don't have rule of law. We should release all suspects and apologize we didn't follow our system of law, which is actually good and should be a model for dealing with people accused of heinous crimes in all countries.

He's not stupid, but is plain evil resulting from the ideas he holds, brought up by communists with much of his "eduction" in Malaysia, further amplified and corrupted by expensive private schooling, Columbia and Harvard, and put into practice for further training by Alinskyites in Chicago. He has worked a productive day in his life.

We are lucky that some Americans are still willing to try to defend this country despite the domestic and foreign policy corruption and the unnecessary danger they are put in through government pandering to a subhuman enemy.

By "would have gone to Canada" do you mean instead of conscription for sacrifice in Vietnam? I feel badly for those who went there, whether or not they chose to, thinking it was for this country rather than the mindless Kennedy-Johnson adventure that it was. The draft made it much worse and many innocent intended victims honorably resisted it, some resorting to Canada but there were many other ways.

They are terrorists caught in action, not just "these people". They are not held "extra-legally" and are not being tortured. They are treated far better than they deserve with all kinds of pandering to their Islam religion and more.

Congress passes the war powers for Bush twice.

They do not have to be charged with anything. This not a matter of criminal law, they are terrorists caught acting worse than animals in a war against America, nor even operating in the manner of uniformed soldiers fighting soldiers. They are being treated far too well with all kinds of pandering to Islam, recreation, etc. If they are removed from Club Gitmo it should be to transfer them to a pit somewhere.

CG, in my view, civilized behavior includes
the elimination of pests when they attack --
I kill ants when they get into my food,
don't you? -- j

I am all for releasing these people held extra-legally and put under torture. It is about time.

What is wrong with this man? Does he have some kind of disease, mental disorder, or is he just plain evil or stupid? I think someone needs to put his brain in a jar and study it. This is not what I fought for, if I would have known we were going to turn out this way I would have gone to Canada, The mental illness or whatever it is must be contagious, seeing all those that still support him.

Can anyone imagine sending your children around the world to fight, putting their lives on the line, and then your leader lets the enemy go to fight them again? It's more than treasonous. I don't know how our military does it anymore, but then again I've heard some pretty wimpy Admirals on the news lately. Politics seems to be the number one priority for our top military leaders now.

complicit. -- j

I feel sad, CG, that these "detainees" made it to
guantanamo. they probably should have met
their maker on the battlefield. -- j

and not a potted plant, thought that would be preferable,
in both senses. -- j

I have to comment that making an end run around our own laws is not a good idea, even when I am emotionally in synch with the result. I think that this starts with reaffirming that 'when we send the military overseas with guns' is 'something that Congress needs to approve'. (We might want to take the word 'war' out of the equation, because that heavy semantic label is what the politicians have been dancing around.) Once our actions are on a firm footing with respect to our own laws and traditions, we already have precedent for what to do (Nuremberg Trials) and what not to do (Geneva Convention).

Jan

Totally illogical.

Jan

Well said AJ!
Even paradise island can become a hell hole...

If obummer had closed gitmo back in Jan 09, he would have been labeled a fool, but at least he'd've been able to say he kept his campaign promise.

Doing it piecemeal almost 6 years later, is both stupid and reprehensible. The criminals he releases will serve as rallying-totems for the moslem fanatics, and waste precious resources by inducing the GOP to form committees that watch his left hand while his 'lefter' hand does something worse!

criminals they are not, savages yes. actually I believe them to be the missing link.

Let's see, we are releasing an enemy who gets to go back to where they decapitate American captives for a video propaganda show.
This does not compute.

why not shoot them in the battle field and not take them prisoner. that would negate the need for gitmo. the reality is 0 is one of them.

It goes back to GW Bush making war without a declaration. Had had asked and obtained a declaration of war against "terror", et al., there would be no argument about the rights of these enemy combatants. And, they could detain them for as long as the war lasted without any consideration of lawyer, charges, trial, etc.

To put the Nation on a wartime footing without a declaration of war leads to the Viet Nam style, political war, fight to a push, walk away from to spoils engagements we have long suffered.

To paraphrase Don Imus, "if we are going to send our youth and treasure over there, we need to let them kill every SOB in sight." Our political war, designed to spur the economies without total destruction, always have "rules of engagement".

What better place is there for the highest enemies of modern civilization than GITMO? On the one side are the sharks in the sea, on the other the loving arms of the Castro family. viva la gitmo!