Posted on 06/26/2007 10:47:11 PM PDT by pissant
Washington D.C. - House Armed Services Committee Ranking Republican Duncan Hunter (R-CA) today sent a letter to President Bush urging him to continue detaining dangerous terrorists at the detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
"It is my view that Guantanamo serves an essential national security function. The military has reviewed the situation of every detainee at Guantanamo, and determined that, if released, they would continue to pose a threat of rejoining al-Qaeda or the Taliban. The danger that these detainees pose is indisputable. The intelligence community has confirmed that a sizeable number of detainees released from Guantanamo rejoined hostilities in Afghanistan and were either killed or captured on the battlefield," wrote Hunter.
"As a result, detainee operations at Guantanamo must continue. The United States Government has a duty to the American people not to release those who would return to the fight and pose a threat to Americans or our coalition partners. Moreover, there is no practical alternative to Guantanamo," continued Hunter.
In the letter, Hunter argued that moving detainees to facilities in the United States is both "misguided" and "dangerous." Specifically, he highlighted the danger of importing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the September 11th terrorist attacks on America, into American communities.
"Importing terrorists, like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, into American communities will have severe implications on our national security: it will undermine our current detention operations by parceling out the detainees to different facilities across the country, as no single facility can currently house all the Guantanamo detainees; it will create an opportunity for these dangerous enemies to recruit and disseminate their terrorist skills; it will increase the threat of an attempted escape and endanger American civilians if there were such an escape; it will make these domestic detention facilities prime targets for any terrorist attack that al-Qaeda is able to mount within our borders; and it will have severe implications on our detainee policy because it will introduce uncertainties about the unlawful enemy combatants' constitutional rights," stated Hunter.
Hunter concluded by addressing the impact the transfer of Guantanamo detainees into the United States would have on America's broader detainee policy, which was enhanced last year in the Military Commissions Act.
"Once these detainees are brought onto U.S. soil, the detainees may acquire minimal rights under the Constitution, in particular, the right to habeas corpus. This change in status will inevitably spawn a completely new round of litigation. While I believe the Combatant Status Review Tribunals that all detainees at Guantanamo receive satisfy those rights, it would take years of further litigation to finally reach that result. Thus, the military commission process would be stalled for the foreseeable future, and none of the detainees at Guantanamo would be brought to justice.
"Some would like this result; they would prefer to see terrorists tried under our federal criminal justice system. This is a false choice. We cannot try terrorists for war crimes if it requires our soldiers to read terrorists Miranda rights or take a battalion of lawyers onto the battlefield. Military commissions are crucial because they are crafted for the conduct of war by providing procedures flexible enough to account for the constraints and conditions of the battlefield."
Move G’itmo to a remote location in Alaska. Low security, no media, no escape.
Better yet. use them for shark chum.
Have Bush announce the prisoners at Gitmo are being moved to make room for the Clintons.
And don’t miss the following for shocking information, intrigue and hilarious entertainment! Also, do vote in today’s new FR poll on the same (in the lower right sidebar).
FRED OR DUNCAN
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1856668/posts
this man , Mr. Duncan Hunter , really impresses me .
His understated remarks about his time in Vietnam.
What a contrast!
Think about who this good man is , when this is in his experience background :
http://www.ranger.org/rangerHistoryVietnamWar.html
and
http://www.173rdairborne.com/history.htm
I tell you , America NEEDS this man .
We need a REAL leader . And let’s WIN this damn war!...
Win the damn war decisively and the rest of the problems overseas will suddenly become less of a problem.
Now that I can support.
Of course he is right, it is just basic common sense. But then, common sense is no longer common. It is simply supply and demand and common sense is in low supply, because there is low demand. Today has shown me proof.
Terrorists eat better those eating school lunches.
Did you see or hear Anne Coulter’s comments as quoted in the following? I don’t watch television but thing that her comments were interesting.
“Good Morning America’s Chris Cuomo interviews Coulter, promotes Godless”
Media Matters
http://mediamatters.org/items/200706260001?f=h_latest
Excerpts:
COULTER: Actually, my favorite candidate is [Rep.] Duncan Hunter [R-CA], and he is magnificent. The problem is most people say, “Who’s Duncan Hunter?” He’s a genuine war hero. He has one son, I think, in Iraq, one in Afghanistan. He is good on every single issue. He has been out front on building a wall. He did build a wall at San Diego. He’s very good on — on the life issue. He’s good on everything.
[...]
COULTER: — it just shows how unhappy we are with McCain, Giuliani and Romney that — that Thompson steps in. People know very little about him and “Oh, he’s our guy,” and it’s sort of like that with Obama, that the Democrats aren’t happy with their leading candidate, [Sen.] Hillary [Rodham Clinton (D-NY)], so they gravitate to Obama knowing nothing about him, and him being, you know, 14 years old.
Ah...spelling. That’s Anne Coulter.
Related article....
Libyan prisoner at Guantanamo fears torture if repatriated
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1851329/posts?page=5
REALLY rough treatment!
...did it again. That’s Ann Coulter—no _E_ in Ann.
Even though this is ruining my plans for G.A.I.R. (Gitmo All-Inclusive Resort), I must congratulate Duncan Hunter for sticking to his guns...something so rare and precious these days.
The Aleutians.
However the idea of keeping these fiends at Gitmo is a good one - it kept the U.S. courts from undue intervention with them.
Glad that Hunter is getting positive coverage on this subject as our “compassionate” President is apparently plannng to cave in on this one too. Maybe it was a deal worked out to please his new buddies Ted “The Swimmer” Kennedy and Harry “The Body” Reid.
“Some would like this result; they would prefer to see terrorists tried under our federal criminal justice system. This is a false choice. We cannot try terrorists for war crimes if it requires our soldiers to read terrorists Miranda rights or take a battalion of lawyers onto the battlefield. Military commissions are crucial because they are crafted for the conduct of war by providing procedures flexible enough to account for the constraints and conditions of the battlefield.” — Duncan Hunter
That was really well worded and it makes the decision an easy one for whom I would chose to be the CiC. Okay, I guess that’s all I got, I can’t think of a way to work in a dig at Fred or Mitt, so, I yield the floor. heh :)
5th time’s a charm.
That was one of the best floor speeches ever.
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