Detainees, Even if Acquitted, Might Not Go Free

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Alan

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WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration said Tuesday it could continue to imprison non-U.S. citizens indefinitely even if they have been acquitted of terrorism charges by a U.S. military commission.

Jeh Johnson, the Defense Department's chief lawyer, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that releasing a detainee who has been tried and found not guilty was a policy decision that officials would make based on their estimate of whether the prisoner posed a future threat.

Like the Bush administration, the Obama administration argues that the legal basis for indefinite detention of aliens it considers dangerous is separate from war-crimes prosecutions. Officials say that the laws of war allow indefinite detention to prevent aliens from committing warlike acts in future, while prosecution by military commission aims to punish them for war crimes committed in the past.

Johnson said such prisoners held without trial would receive "some form of periodic review" that could lead to their release.

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a leading Republican on detainee policy, approved. "Some of them will be able to get out of jail because they've rehabilitated themselves and some of them may in fact die in jail," Graham said. But "I don't want to put people in a dark hole forever" simply "because somebody like Dick Cheney, or you fill in the blank with a politician, said so."

Also at the hearing, Obama administration officials differed with the Navy's senior uniformed lawyer over whether coerced statements should be used to convict Guantanamo defendants.
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http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/07/detainees-acquitted-free/

:erm:

No doubt a wave of criticism is coming from the liberal media along with mass protests from leftists as yet another Bush policy is embraced :rolleyes:
 
How do you establish whether some1 is a potential threat? Last time I checked Minority Report was labeled fiction. Or is it every1 with middle names along the lines of Hussein:rolleyes:

And wth about only letting them go once they're rehabilitated? For that to be possible they would actually need to have committed a crime, Senator.

This is a terrible joke, more so for being told twice.
 
I would assume that this is in the case of "subversives" what are known members of "terrorist" organisations... and is in response to the statistic that a very high number of detainees go right back to those organizations?
 
Garyvdh said:
I would assume that this is in the case of "subversives" what are known members of "terrorist" organisations... and is in response to the statistic that a very high number of detainees go right back to those organizations?
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Well if they weren't angry and jilted towards the US already they would be after a length at Gitmo.
 
Fudzy said:
Well if they weren't angry and jilted towards the US already they would be after a length at Gitmo.
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Yeah far more likely that they were random innocent people picked up and radicalized by gitmo than terrorists in the first place......

Hey Killa finally losing faith in the Obamasiah? ;)
 
Isn't it amazing how the world fell into the palm of this git's hand? An African from a Muslim father, who promises change of all things, and just because he can string two words together and make so many women wet their panties the world decides, "Well gosh darn, we might as well make him president!".

And the wheels on the bus go round and round.
 
marine1 said:
What you dont get is that maybe just maybe Obama has realised who and what America has been dealing with ;)
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I think he had a good idea going in. It would be daft of him just to open the gates.
 
Alan said:
Yeah far more likely that they were random innocent people picked up and radicalized by gitmo than terrorists in the first place......
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Not all of them, no. But wouldn't you be angry if you were detained without jury or reason?
 
Fudzy said:
Well if they weren't angry and jilted towards the US already they would be after a length at Gitmo.
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um, I think it is safe to say that they were already angry towards the US when they joined an organization that swears death to the "Great Satan" ... but that's just my assumption! :D
 
Garyvdh said:
um, I think it is safe to say that they were already angry towards the US when they joined an organization that swears death to the "Great Satan" ... but that's just my assumption! :D
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You don't believe there are innocent people in there? The previous cabinet did...

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/03/19/ex-bush-official-guantanamo-bay-innocent/

"It did not matter if a detainee were innocent. Indeed, because he lived in Afghanistan and was captured on or near the battle area, he must know something of importance," Wilkerson wrote in the blog. He said intelligence analysts hoped to gather "sufficient information about a village, a region, or a group of individuals, that dots could be connected and terrorists or their plots could be identified."
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Its with this logic that they have been denied the POW rights of the Geneva convention.
 
Fudzy said:
You don't believe there are innocent people in there? The previous cabinet did....
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Sure, there might be innocent people there... that is why the process is ongoing. many have been released. Those are still deemed to constitute a threat are continually detained (probably because they have been shown to be members of some or other terrorist organization).

It's regrettable, but this is a war situation, these people were apprehended on a battle scene or after intensive investigation into terrorist activities or because they could provide valuable evidence.

Enemy combatants should never be afforded the same rights as citizens.... only the rights guaranteed them according to the Geneva convention.

I think the US should enforce the Geneva Convention rights in regard to the Gitmo detainees. But as I pointed out above, it has been found that many of those released went straight back to their involvement with known threat organizations. So the US is in a catch 22 situation.

In that case my gut feeling kicks in and says "make an example of them"

But that is a two way street and may do more PR damage or hostility damage in the long run.

I'm glad I am not the one who has to make these decisions.

I will tell you this. If I was anywhere near a war zone where the US was operating I would get my family the hell out of there weeks or days before... not hang around the battlefield. If I did get caught in the battle unavoidably, I would make it very very clear that I was not a combatant in any way, means or fashion. If I was apprehended I would quickly assure them of my non-hostility.
 
"If I did get caught in the battle unavoidably, I would make it very very clear that I was not a combatant in any way, means or fashion. If I was apprehended I would quickly assure them of my non-hostility."

If an entire Muslim family gets thrown off a plane in Texas because another passenger heard them speak about "security", then you would do well to know your attempts to assure them of your "non-hostility" would be useless. Off to Gitmo.
 
Aeron said:
If an entire Muslim family gets thrown off a plane in Texas because another passenger heard them speak about "security", then you would do well to know your attempts to assure them of your "non-hostility" would be useless. Off to Gitmo.
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:confused: Excuse me? what? are you talking about anything specific here?
 
Garyvdh said:
But as I pointed out above, it has been found that many of those released went straight back to their involvement with known threat organizations.
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That was BS Cheney pulled out of his *** when the media learnt this was BS they never bothered to inform the public Cheney was pulling numbers out his @**. He made this up.
 
Aqua_lung said:
That was BS Cheney pulled out of his *** when the media learnt this was BS they never bothered to inform the public Cheney was pulling numbers out his @**. He made this up.
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Oh, and you know this... how? :rolleyes:
 
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