Sorting Out Guantanamo

In the news recently has been the suit before the Supreme Court in which attorneys representing prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay are arguing the case for whether the detainees are entitled to the protection of the constitutional protection of habeas corpus - the right to prove before an independent court that they are being unlawfully held. As an excellent summary in the Washington Post reports, "It is a case that raises profound questions of the separation of powers and the role of the federal courts during wartime."

As you might expect, a few thoughts come to mind as I watch this legal kabuki dance.

The first, obvious one is that there are some very evil and unpleasant people being held at Guantanamo, demanding rights no other country in the world would even consider granting them. I don't think Abu Zubayda, Ramzi Binalshibh, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed spent much time worrying about the legal rights of the 3,000 people they conspired to murder on September 11th, 2001 (one of whom was very nearly yours truly), and so I don't have much sympathy for the argument that we should worry about their rights. On the other hand, I believe we have an obligation to ensure that all the people held at Guantanamo really deserve to be there. I think there are probably some detainees there who, while they're arguably bad people, ought to be simply deported to their home countries, and good riddance.

I do, though, have some problems with how some of these detainees got to Guantanamo. The concept of extraordinary rendition isn't really new, but has been taken to a new level by the current administration. As noisims pointed out in his perceptive post yesterday, Adolf Eichmann, a Nazi war criminal, was kidnapped in Buenos Aires by Israeli agents in 1960 to face trial and eventual execution in Israel - this was a case of extraordinary rendition before we had such an elegant name for it, and Eichmann was a world-class criminal every bit as evil as anyone at Guantanamo. No one seems to be arguing that Eichmann's rights were violated.

Yes, the Bush administration has taken some liberties with the law. But to contend that the Guantanamo detainees deserve the same legal rights and privileges as American citizens is a cruel joke played on those killed on 9/11. I believe that rendition, properly overseen by the courts and applied only in the most critical cases, is warranted and legal. As for the people we hold now, figure out which ones really belong at Guantanamo, and deport the rest. If they take up arms against the civilized world again, just kill them this time, and be done with it.

By the way, does anyone other than me see any incongruity in the argument that Guantanamo detainees shouldn't be sent back to their home countries because they might be tortured or executed? The implied argument seems to be that, regardless of how they came to be at Guantanamo, they are better off in American custody than they are at home.

Hmmm...

Bottom line: the prison at Guantanamo, however unpleasant, is a necessary part of the war on extremist terror. That said, we owe it to ourselves and our traditions to make sure that it's administered in accordance with the law, and that the people brought there really deserve to be there. Lock them up, throw away the key, and let them rot in the bile of their own hatreds that brought them to this end.

I won't be shedding any tears.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo