My brother wrote this, prompted by a letter from Andrew McCarthy to Attorney General Eric Holder, which argued strongly for a continuation of the Bush policy of indeterminate detention for terror suspects until the "end of hostilities". I post it here, as I strongly agree. Enjoy.
"The president is convening a roundtable task force to decide what to do about the so-called terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The president invited a diverse group of people to participate, including conservatives, like Andrew McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor, and a commentator for the National Review. McCarthy favors detention of terrorism suspects at Guantanamo until as he puts it in his letter to Eric Holder “the conclusion of hostilities.” Of course, how one defines the “conclusion of hostilities” is subject to considerable debate.
In the end, McCarthy favors limitless detention of terrorism suspects at Guantanamo – no opportunity to confront the allegations, no access to counsel, no right to a trial, no right to present evidence in defense of the allegations, etc. This is the same Andrew McCarthy, who like Sean Hannity, doesn’t think water boarding is torture, but rather “enhanced interrogation.” Essentially, McCarthy favors an approach to dealing with terrorism suspects that defies the U.S. Constitution and Americanism, and resembles the former Soviet-style method for dealing with political prisoners, i.e. indeterminate imprisonment in Siberian gulags.
There is, of course, a constitutional middle ground. Where the evidence supports charges of terrorist activity, the persons guilty of that activity should be convicted in court and punished severely. Where the evidence does not exist, the persons detained should be placed on a ship, and dropped off on the shores of their native countries. This is the American system of justice, by no means flawless, but nevertheless the best system known to mankind. Will some of the persons released engage in future terrorist activity? Perhaps. But, in this country some of the guilty go free. That is the price of liberty. There are countries in this world where all of the guilty are punished, where the political decision has been made to subvert liberty to achieve security. None of us would want to live in those countries, but they exist.
True patriotism ain’t easy. It requires adherence to American values even when it isn’t convenient or politically expedient. This country was founded on the defense of “inalienable” human rights. For obvious reasons, the detention facility is fundamentally un-American, and President Obama is right to shut it down." - Tom Intili
Right On Tom,
Beautifully Said. I wish more people were capable of that level of thought, if they were we would be making more progress toward achieving those inalienable rights for all.
Posted by: Kirk | September 27, 2009 at 12:46 PM