Skip to: Content
Skip to: Site Navigation
Skip to: Search
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009
| Subscribe to Newser's RSS feeds RSS | Follow Newser on Twitter Twitter


 OPINION 
4

Easy to Find Middle Ground on Gitmo: Klein

Military courts wouldn't allow torture evidence, get civilian review

Share

(Newser) – Lawyers and soldiers are divided on how to deal with enemy combatants, but “it shouldn’t be too hard to find a middle ground,” writes Joe Klein in Time, because both arguments “are being made by unappealing extremists.” It’s unrealistic to try detainees in open civilian courts, as the ACLU wants, but Dick Cheney’s vision of an all-powerful executive imprisoning them forever is reprehensible.

The only serious problem is how to try detainees without endangering classified secrets. President Obama has proposed that evidence obtained from coercive techniques be inadmissible, and Sen. Lindsay Graham’s idea that civilian judges be allowed to see that evidence in closed hearings “seems an eminently reasonable middle course,” Klein writes. The battle over where to put the prisoners is “tawdry politics”—US jails can and do hold terrorists.

In this photo taken May 12, 2009 and reviewed by the US military, a US trooper guards a door at Camp 6 detention facility, inside Guantanamo Bay US Naval Base, Cuba.
In this photo taken May 12, 2009 and reviewed by the US military, a US trooper guards a door at Camp 6 detention facility, inside Guantanamo Bay US Naval Base, Cuba.   (AP Photo)
In this photo taken May 12, 2009 and reviewed by the US military, a US trooper guards a door at Camp 6 detention facility, inside Guantanamo Bay US Naval Base, Cuba.
In this photo taken May 12, 2009 and reviewed by the US military, a US trooper guards a door at Camp 6 detention facility, inside Guantanamo Bay US Naval Base, Cuba.   (AP Photo)
Troopers walk through an entrance to Guantanamo's Camp 6 maximum security detention facility.
Troopers walk through an entrance to Guantanamo's Camp 6 maximum security detention facility.   (AP Photo)
« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow

The recent fuss over where to put the Guantanamo prisoners is tawdry politics, incited by desperate Republicans with the supine complicity of congressional Democrats. - Joe Klein

« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow
OFF THE GRID
11.23.09
Books Are Bad for You
11.20.09
The Health-Care Wars Have Just Begun
4 comments
VIEWING:
 
northeast
May 21, 09 10:58 AM CDT
We can't put them in US prisons. A, they'd be dead within a week. B, if they did survive, they'd go home with the assumption that we really are a nation of "sexual perversity." C, there's no room; we're too busy incarcerating the real villains (pot smokers). How about special camps inside the US? Reply
Vote up! Vote down!
0
kokuaguy
May 21, 09 12:01 PM CDT
CLOSE GITMO NOW !!! Reply
Vote up! Vote down!
0
TerrifiedCitizen
May 21, 09 2:22 PM CDT
Reply
Vote up! Vote down!
0
IN RESPONSE:
TerrifiedCitizen
May 21, 09 3:12 PM CDT
And that's all I have to say on the subject...
Vote up! Vote down!
0
LEAVE A
COMMENT Comment Policy
Facebook ConnectPost this comment to Facebook?

After connecting you will have the option to post your comment on your Facebook profile.

 

Related Newser Stories

52 Stories

OPINION

 Bush AG: 
 Court Terror 
 Trials Too 
 Dangerous 

Challenges to security, secrecy would be 'overwhelming'

Oct 19, 09 4:40 AM CDT
(Newser) - The Obama administration wants to try alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other Guantanamo detainees in federal courts—and that's a major mistake, says Michael Mukasey. Terrorism trials pose "overwhelming" security challenges, and classified information would have to be revealed, warns George Bush's relatively moderate third attorney general... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Guantanamo Bay • Khalid Sheikh Mohammed • Michael Mukasey • Guantanamo prisoners • al-Qaeda • attorney general • 9/11 attacks • Guantanamo tribunals

White House Counsel May Quit Over Gitmo Struggles

Craig taking heat as January closing deadline slips away

Sep 25, 09 4:47 AM CDT
(Newser) - The Obama administration's promise to close Guantanamo Bay within a year is in serious danger of being broken, and White House counsel Greg Craig may be leaving his post because of it, senior officials say. Craig ordered the January deadline after being advised not to by outgoing Bush administration officials... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Guantanamo Bay • Guantanamo prisoners • Obama administration • Guantanamo tribunals • White House counsel • Greg Craig

(Newser) - The Justice Department is seeking to determine if military defense attorneys for Guantanamo Bay detainees broke the law protecting classified material by showing prisoners photographs of covert CIA officers and contractors, reports the Washington Post. Three lawyers apparently used the photographs in an attempt to identify potential participants in abuses... More »

MORE ABOUT:
CIA • ACLU • Guantanamo Bay • Guantanamo prisoners

52 Stories


Obama divides Guantanamo into categories
Fox News

Despite plan, Guantanamo trials still problematic
New York Times


Politics  •  Crime & Courts  •  Opinion 
TwitterFollow @NewserPolitics on Twitter

 
ACLU • enemy combatants • Guantanamo Bay • military commissions • Joe Klein • Lindsay Graham • Guantanamo tribunals • torture photos

from our news partners