Remember The Constitution?
A conservative Federal appeals court hasn't forgotten it. From an AP story on CNN.com:
The three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the government should charge Ali al-Marri, a legal U.S. resident and the only suspected enemy combatant on American soil, or release him from military custody.The federal Military Commissions Act doesn't strip al-Marri of his constitutional right to challenge his accusers in court, the judges found in Monday's 2-1 decision.
"Put simply, the Constitution does not allow the President to order the military to seize civilians residing within the United States and then detain them indefinitely without criminal process, and this is so even if he calls them 'enemy combatants,"' the court said.
Such detention "would have disastrous consequences for the Constitution -- and the country," Judge Diana G. Motz wrote in the majority opinion.
"This is a landmark victory for the rule of law and a defeat for unchecked executive power," al-Marri's lawyer, Jonathan Hafetz, said in a statement. "It affirms the basic constitutional rights of all individuals -- citizens and immigrants -- in the United States."
Frankly, we look much better around the world if we give these people a fair trial. All of them. And if they're bad guys, and we can prove they did what we think they did, why should that be a problem?
Colin Powell feels similarly. From a Reuters story, he says Gitmo should be closed and its occupants moved to the USA:
"Guantanamo has become a major, major problem ... in the way the world perceives America and if it were up to me I would close Guantanamo not tomorrow but this afternoon ... and I would not let any of those people go. I would simply move them to the United States and put them into our federal legal system," Powell told NBC's Meet the Press."Essentially, we have shaken the belief the world had in America's justice system by keeping a place like Guantanamo open and creating things like the military commission. We don't need it and it is causing us far more damage than any good we get for it," he added.







Hear, hear. If the US (or the UK) wants to go about righting wrongs, then it must be in very firm possession of the moral high ground. This must include giving your enemies a "fair deal" - whatever that means - even when it is to your immediate disadvantage. Without this, you are not righting wrongs, you are just using your power to grab what you can. This makes you no better or worse than your enemies, just better armed.
While granting your enemies rights seems crazy, it keeps the rest of the world - and more importantly your voters and allies - on your side. Eventually your enemies have enough rope to hang themselves, or cease to be your enemies, or just cease to be.
Guantanamo must be closed down. It's an obscenity. I don't know how to do it. Somehow you've got to get off this tiger, and the longer you put it off, the worse it gets.
Norman at June 12, 2007 5:54 AM
And the UK may be getting a written constitution! Courtesy of Gordon Brown, who will be taking over as Prime Minister in a matter of days, since no-one else has offered to take on the post.
Any advice from you folk over there?
Norman at June 12, 2007 6:41 AM
> I don't know how to do it.
Just open the gates and kick 'em... Let Fidel deal with murderous thugs who show up in Havana looking for a sandwich and an infidel to throttle. He'll be dead soon and we're running out of opportunities tot humiliate him. This would be a little payback for Mariel. http://urltea.com/r2b
I think this was Jonah Goldberg's idea originally. I'm trying to look it up.
Crid at June 12, 2007 7:38 AM
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