FOCUS | Senators Blast Administration over Gitmo

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FOCUS | Senators Blast Administration over Gitmo

Thu, 16 Jun 2005 06:25:18 -0700

 

 

 

FOCUS | Senators Blast Administration over Gitmo

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/061605Z.shtml

 

 

 

 

Guantanamo Inmates Can Be Held 'in Perpetuity' - US

Reuters

 

Wednesday 15 June 2005

 

Republican senators called on Wednesday for the rights of foreign

terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay prison to be legally defined even

as the Bush administration said the inmates could be jailed there " in

perpetuity. "

 

The prison, currently holding roughly 520 inmates, opened on the

U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in January 2002 in the

aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Many of

the detainees have been held for more than three years, and only four

have been charged.

 

At a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Republican Chairman

Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania said Congress should help to define the

legal rights of the inmates at the prison, which the panel's top

Democrat called " an international embarrassment. "

 

Delaware Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record)

asked Deputy Associate Attorney General J. Michael Wiggins whether the

Justice Department had " defined when there is the end of conflict. "

 

" No, sir, " Wiggins responded.

 

" If there is no definition as to when the conflict ends, that

means forever, forever, forever these folks get held at Guantanamo

Bay, " Biden said.

 

" It's our position that, legally, they can be held in perpetuity, "

Wiggins said.

 

Earlier, the committee's top Democrat, Sen. Patrick Leahy (news,

bio, voting record) of Vermont, said the United States may face

terrorism " as long as you and I live. " He asked Brig. Gen. Thomas

Hemingway, who oversees military trials of Guantanamo prisoners, if

that means America can hold prisoners that long without charges.

 

" I think that we can hold them as long as the conflict endures, "

Hemingway responded.

 

" Guantanamo Bay is an international embarrassment to our nation,

to our ideals, and it remains a festering threat to our security, "

Leahy said.

 

" Our great country, America, was once viewed as a leader in human

rights and the rule of law, and justly so. Guantanamo has undermined

our leadership, has damaged our credibility, has drained the world's

goodwill for America at an alarming rate, " Leahy added.

 

Critics have decried the indefinite detention of Guantanamo

prisoners, whom the United States has denied rights accorded under the

Geneva Conventions to prisoners of war. The prison, was called " the

gulag of our times " in a recent Amnesty International report.

 

Hemingway said the military commissions created by the Pentagon

were the appropriate forum for trying Guantanamo prisoners. Human and

legal rights groups have said the rules created by the administration

are heavily biased toward the prosecution. The trials have been held

up amid legal fights.

 

Navy Rear Adm. James McGarrah called " rigorous and fair " the

Pentagon's annual review of the status of Guantanamo prisoners -- a

process that can lead to their release. In those proceedings,

detainees are prohibited from having lawyers and cannot see all the

government's evidence relating to them.

 

Lawyers representing Guantanamo prisoners criticized their

treatment and the government's system for trying them.

 

" The (reviews) are a sham, " said Joseph Margulies, one of the

lawyers. " They mock this nation's commitment to due process, and it is

past time for this mockery to end. "

 

Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions (news, bio, voting record) of

Alabama said: " This country is not systematically abusing prisoners.

We have no policy to do so. And it's wrong to suggest that. And it

puts our soldiers at risk who are in this battle because we sent them

there. "

 

Referring to detainees, Sessions added, " Some of them need to be

executed. "

 

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (news, bio, voting record) of South

Carolina joined Specter and others who said Congress needed to get

involved to better define the process at Guantanamo.

 

" I think it would be tremendously helpful if the Congress and the

administration came together with some general statutory language to

help define what's going on at Guantanamo Bay, to better define what

an enemy combatant is, to make sure that due process is affordable, "

Graham said.

 

Specter noted that legislation he introduced in 2002 on legal

rights of detainees had gone nowhere.

 

" It may be that it's too hot to handle for Congress, may be that

it's too complex to handle for Congress, or it may be that Congress

wants to sit back, as we customarily do, awaiting some action with the

court no matter how long it takes, " he said.

 

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled a year ago that Guantanamo prisoners

had the right to seek their release in federal court. But decisions in

the lower court have been contradictory, creating what Specter called

a " crazy quilt " of rulings.

 

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