Obama said planning U.S. trials for Guantanamo detainees
MATT APUZZO AND LARA JAKES JORDAN
Globe-Associated Press
WASHINGTON — U.S. president-elect Barack Obama's advisers are quietly crafting a proposal to ship dozens, if not hundreds, of imprisoned terrorism suspects to the United States to face criminal trials, a plan that would make good on his promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison but could require creation of a controversial new system of justice.
During his campaign, Mr. Obama described Guantanamo as a “sad chapter in American history” and has said generally that the U.S. legal system is equipped to handle the detainees. But he has offered few details on what he planned to do once the facility is closed.
Among the detainees is Canadian-born Omar Khadr, who has been held at the controversial facility since his arrest in Afghanistan in 2002.
Mr. Khadr, who was captured when he was 15-years-old, is accused of killing an American army medic during a firefight. Lawyers and human rights activists have unsuccessfully lobbied Prime Minister Stephen Harper in hopes of having Mr. Khadr repatriated to Canada. His war crimes trial is slated to begin on Jan. 26, six days after Mr. Obama is sworn into office.
Under plans being put together in Mr. Obama's camp, some detainees would be released and many others would be prosecuted in U.S. criminal courts.
A third group of detainees — the ones whose cases are most entangled in highly classified information — might have to go before a new court designed especially to handle sensitive national security cases, according to advisers and Democrats involved in the talks. Advisers participating directly in the planning spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans aren't final.
The move would be a sharp deviation from the Bush administration, which established military tribunals to prosecute detainees at the Navy base in Cuba and strongly opposes bringing prisoners to the United States. Mr. Obama's Republican challenger, John McCain, had also pledged to close Guantanamo. But Mr. McCain opposed criminal trials, saying the Bush administration's tribunals should continue on U.S. soil.
1 comment:
Do the US courts have jurisdication? I imagine they don't. Even the Nuremburg trials were trials of German citizens who committed acts some of which were outside Germany. I don't believe any non Germans were tried. What legal precident is there to try non US citizens who committed acts not on US soil? Maybe they could be tried in the Hague under international law, but the US? Can you break US law if you are not in the US at the time and you are not a US citizen?
I've heard of Canadians being put in US jail for actions outside the US such as Conrad Black, but he was obstructing a US trial in progress. Also Candians who do business with Cuba have been put in US jail but because the business they are conducting in the US breaks US law for being tied to Cuba.
These non US citizens whose actions occured outside the US but were tried and sent to jail in the US had business in the US or ongoing trials in the US that amounted to breaking US law.
I don't think US courts have any juridiction over Guantanamo prisoners and I assume that would be the ruling of any trail there.
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