This Tuesday, various
members of the Obama Administration, from the Defense and Justice Departments,
testified in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which includes Maine
Senator Susan Collins. The Wall Street Journal captured the scope of the
debate:
"Jeh Johnson, the
Defense Department's chief lawyer, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that
releasing a detainee who has been tried and found not guilty was a policy
decision that officials would make based on their estimate of whether the
prisoner posed a future threat."
The Wall Street
Journal goes on to report:
"Vice Adm. Bruce
MacDonald, giving his independent opinion as the Navy's judge advocate general,
testified that the standard should be whether a statement was "reliable," rather
than whether it was coerced."
On the other hand,
David Kris from the Justice Department suggested that information gathered from
coercion may not stand in federal courts.
With this much disagreement between, and perhaps within, various
departments of the administration, Guantanamo is unlikely to close safely and
justly within a year as Obama had planned.
However, the same WSJ
article quotes Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), who provides a refreshing voice in
the dialogue:
"What bothers me is
that they seem to be saying, 'Some people we have good enough evidence against,
so we'll give them a fair trial. Some people the evidence is not so good, so
we'll give them a less fair trial. We'll give them just enough due process to
ensure a conviction because we know they're guilty. That's not a fair trial,
that's a show trial".
Rep. Nadler is right;
due process cannot retract or expand case by case. This not only endangers the
integrity of each case, but also the integrity of our legal system itself. The
MCLU and ACLU are firmly opposed to indefinite detention. You can share your
views with President Obama and the Maine Congressional Delegation here.