Posted on 12/29/2001 2:10:03 AM PST by JohnHuang2
U.S. expecting more prisoners in Afghanistan
WASHINGTON -- American forces in Afghanistan are expecting to receive a growing stream of prisoners in the coming days from among the thousands captured by Afghan fighters. Some could face U.S. military tribunals.President Bush defended his plan to put terrorist suspects before a military tribunal, saying Friday that they will be treated more fairly than Americans were in the deadly attacks of Sept. 11.
The number of prisoners jailed at the makeshift detention center at Afghanistan's Kandahar Airport has risen steadily this week, and the Pentagon was expecting the addition of a couple dozen daily over the coming days, a defense official said.
At a news conference Friday at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, Bush pledged again that the United States would bring Osama bin Laden to justice, ``dead or alive.''
And though he expressed total confidence in how the war in Afghanistan is being waged, he emphasized that American troops will not be coming home soon.
``He is not escaping us,'' Bush said of bin Laden, whom he called a ``parasite.'' The president said he had seen only snippets of the terrorist leader's latest monologue on videotape. ``Who knows when it was made?'' he said.
While conceding that bin Laden's pursuers do not know where he is, or even whether he is alive, the president spoke of him as though he is on the run and still a danger to Americans. ``I hope 2002 is a year of peace,'' Bush said. ``I'm also realistic.''
BIN LADEN'S POSITION
Bush imagined the world from bin Laden's standpoint, assuming that he is alive. ``This is a guy who three months ago was in control of a country,'' the president said. ``Now he's in control of a cave.''
As of Friday afternoon, the number of captured al Qaeda and Taliban figures in U.S. custody was 70. Eight of these prisoners, including American John Walker, were being held on the Navy's amphibious assault ship USS Peleliu in the Arabian Sea, and the other 62 were in Kandahar.
Some U.S. Marines at the Kandahar base prepared to leave Friday, with Army and possibly Air Force personnel expected to arrive soon, defense officials said.
Afghan fighters hold thousands captured as they wrested control of the country from the former radical Islamic rulers and the al Qaeda terrorist network they harbored. Pakistan also holds hundreds of prisoners.
POOLED IN KANDAHAR
Now that a number of them have been determined to be of interest to the United States, they are being sent to Kandahar, the official said.
More of them can be accommodated in Kandahar, he said, because Marines have expanded the facility there to hold some 250. Afghan groups and U.S. officials have been sorting through prisoners for weeks to determine which might be useful for intelligence and which might be punished.
CIA and FBI agents are among Americans who have been interrogating prisoners to learn bin Laden's whereabouts, to determine which ones should be brought to trial and to try to get information about other terrorists or planned terrorist attacks.
Many of the prisoners will be sent to the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Thursday. Getting facilities at that base ready for the stream of detainees will take several weeks.
Bush has authorized the use of military tribunals to try terrorist suspects from other countries, and the administration is working to lay out rules for how such courts would operate. A draft of proposed rules for the tribunals states that a unanimous vote of a tribunal's military officers would be required to impose a death sentence on a foreign terror suspect, a U.S. official said Friday on condition of anonymity.
I certainly hope that once we are finished with the prisoners, they are released into Cuba.
1. Release of the 1st confession tape to the public on Dec. 13th, 2001 tainted any possible jury pool in the U.S.
2. The tape would not have been released if it were needed as admissible evidence for a court trial.
3. No court case is expected.
QED
OBL was DEAD Dec 13th, and remains so.
Flaw in your argument. U.S. has TONS and SCADS of evidence you are not even remotely aware of. The tape was never "needed as admissible evidence" and therefore its release is not in the slightest bit useful for determining OBL's current status or U.S. knowledge of same.
This of course is just my opinion, and if he should surface I'll have to eat crow.
(It wouldn't be the first time.)
This of course is just my opinion, and if he should surface I'll have to eat crow. (It wouldn't be the first time.)"
I agree and I'll eat some crow with you if necessary.
Very true, but much of that was collected by our Intel assets an can not be used in a public trial.
The tape is open source, so therefor isn't going to cause the disclosure of our collection methods and abilities.
you are not even remotely aware of
I suspect there are few FReepers who know more than I do about how little we know. ;>)
As a former member of the "Old Crow & White Lightning" society, let me assure you Crow doesn't taste to bad.
When eaten after large amounts of white Lightning it can be very tasty.
What makes you assume there would be a public trial?
A closed trail or closed military trial would not satisfy the average U.S. citizen,
who would be sure of a government whitewash, railroad job, or coverup,
depending on which side of their head they wear their tin foil hat.
Citizens of other countries would be even less accepting of a closed trial.
As I indicated in a prior post, If I'm wrong and OBL surfaces, I'll eat crow.
If we never ever see his ugly raghead again it won't prove I was correct.
Great line! Thanks for responding to my post and referencing this thread!
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