20 Recent Front Page

• Populism and Republicanism
• Preaching to the Choir
• And Another Thing
• Almost Last Words
• Happy Thanksgiving
• Cooking
• Eating History
• AIDS Cure Found in Dolphin Livers
• Apologies
• The Small Stuff
• Snow Job
• Bliss
• Ammo Day
• From the Closet
• Satire
• The United States of America:  The Miniseries
• Intellectual Curiosity
• Fifteen to a Boat
• Oh, Good Grief
• Strawman

Frontpage Calendar

Mrs. du Toit Weblog

This site is inactive as of November 30, 2008.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Oh, Good Grief

I made the mistake of following an MSNBC link to a report about how Obama intends to handle the Gitmo situation.

WASHINGTON - President-elect Obama’s advisers are quietly crafting a proposal to ship dozens, if not hundreds, of imprisoned terrorism suspects to the United States to face criminal trials, a plan that would make good on his promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison but could require creation of a controversial new system of justice.

[snip]

“I think the answer is going to be, they can be as securely guarded on U.S. soil as anywhere else,” Tribe said. “We can’t put people in a dungeon forever without processing whether they deserve to be there.”

Correct.  We can just shoot them, which is the usual International method of dealing with unlawful combatants.

Obama has said the civilian and military court-martial systems provide “a framework for dealing with the terrorists,” and Tribe said the administration would look to those venues before creating a new legal system. But discussions of what a new system would look like have already started.

“It would have to be some sort of hybrid that involves military commissions that actually administer justice rather than just serve as kangaroo courts,” Tribe said. “It will have to both be and appear to be fundamentally fair in light of the circumstances. I think people are going to give an Obama administration the benefit of the doubt in that regard.”

I beg to differ.  I don’t give any administration the “benefit of the doubt” when it comes to the establishment of extra-Constitutional measures, especially secret courts.

Though a hybrid court may be unpopular, other advisers and Democrats involved in the Guantanamo Bay discussions say Obama has few other options.

Unpopular?  What about unConstitutional?

According to three advisers participating in the process, Obama is expected to propose a new court system, appointing a committee to decide how such a court would operate. Some detainees likely would be returned to the countries where they were first captured for further detention or rehabilitation. The rest could probably be prosecuted in U.S. criminal courts, one adviser said. All spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing talks, which have been private.

I’m sorry, but I can’t find anything in my copy of the Constitution that gives the President the authority to establish a new justice system.  You have the civilian courts for U.S. matters or the military one in times of war.  Choose.

The Congress has this authority, not the Executive:  To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;

“In reality and symbolically, the idea that we have people in legal black holes is an extremely serious black mark,” Tribe said. “It has to be dealt with.”

The detainees should have considered that inconvenience when they became enemy combatants.

Message to the troops:  Take no prisoners.  Shoot the bastards, or they’re going to be released into the general population again.

Latest from:

American Farmer

by American Farmer

American Farmer may now be read on his own domain:
americanfarmerBLOG.com

Blogroll

Blogroll Archive (Zipped)

From the U.S. Constitution...