Yesterday's New York Times had an article by William Glaberson reminding us that the four month suspension on the military tribunals at Guantanamo is due to end on May 20th. The Obama Administration is beginning to realize the value of handling certain detainees in military courts rather than civilian courts and it will be interesting to see what happens next. According to the article:
"Officials who work on the Guantánamo issue say administration lawyers have become concerned that they would face significant obstacles to trying some terrorism suspects in federal courts. Judges might make it difficult to prosecute detainees who were subjected to brutal treatment or for prosecutors to use hearsay evidence gathered by intelligence agencies."
Note to the New York Times--No detainees were subjected to brutal treatment--Gauntanamo has been investigated by the Department of Defense and the Red Cross and no violations have been found--the violations are in the minds of people who need them for political purposes only.
If this administration has the courage to resume the military trials, it will create a problem with their base. It will be interesting to see if they do the right thing or the political thing. National security should not be a political issue--it's a shame it was missued and misstated during the last Presidential campaign.
Just a note on things to come. There are some Chinese terrorists that had gone through Al Qaeda terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and were captured there. President Obama wants them released in the United States (because they will be killed if they are sent back to China), and given federal assistance to get back on their feet. The military has declared them dangerous to this country and the President has asked the military to reconsider. I am looking for the news that they will be released in this country shortly. I hope that will not happen, but we need to remember that a trained terrorist is a threat, regardless of the country he was trained to terrorize.
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