finally some sanity about guantanamo bay...

[Mike70]

as one of his first acts in office, the president has ordered an immediate suspension of 21 trials underway at gtmo. this should've been done a long, long time ago. gtmo is a complete and total stain on the US as far as i am concerned. the people there who are accused of criminal activity against the US need to be moved to a federal court and tried as civilians.

cue right wing crying about being soft on terrorism...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/21/barack-obama-guantanamo-bay-tribunals

[AcesandEights]

Good news! Though I wonder if Obama will ultimately be too soft on terrorists, this needed to be done.

Now I hope the Prez continues on and takes a closer look at a few of the other Bush era constructs.

[Tricky]

Problem being the UK government is going to take some of these detainees in & house them at the taxpayers expense,even though they were captured firing at our troops in afghanistan,because labour ARE a soft touch :mad:

[Mike70]

Good news! Though I wonder if Obama will ultimately be too soft on terrorists, this needed to be done.

it certainly did need to be done. one of the things that has always enraged me over gtmo is the whole secret evidence thing and the govts. ability to deny the defense access to material and information that might be favorable to their clients under the reason of "national security." bullshit.

i have a firm belief in the absolute right of a person, any person i don't care who they are or what they are accused of, to defend themselves against criminal accusations. if the govt. is going to put someone on trial for something that can carry an extremely long prison sentence or even the death penalty, it has absolutely no right to withhold anything from the defence nor to use "secret' evidence which the defense basically has no ability to examine or counter.

hell, when it comes right down to it, i really despise legalistic thinking in all its forms. what the govt. has a "legal" right to do by no means implies that such actions are morally right or defensible.

[_liam_]

Problem being the UK government is going to take some of these detainees in & house them at the taxpayers expense,even though they were captured firing at our troops in afghanistan,because labour ARE a soft touch :mad:

Were only taking ones we captured, that are currently housed at the US taxpayer's expense

[Tricky]

Were only taking ones we captured, that are currently housed at the US taxpayer's expense

Thats what i mean,they were firing at our troops,now we're going to give them new lives for free at our expense,its ridiculous!does anyone actually buy the excuses they gave that they were doing "computer courses" & such out there??what we should be doing is flying them back to wherever they they were found to take their chances!

[Mike70]

Thats what i mean,they were firing at our troops,now we're going to give them new lives for free at our expense,its ridiculous!does anyone actually buy the excuses they gave that they were doing "computer courses" & such out there??what we should be doing is flying them back to wherever they they were found to take their chances!

i must look into this now that you have gotten my interest up. these people aren't going to be tried or held accountable for what they did in any way once they get back to the UK?? if so that's a bunch of bullshiv too.

i don't mean to suggest that any of these folks just be let go. they ought to be tried in a civilian court is my contention. to simply let them go is pretty fucking ridiculous.