Friday, March 05, 2010

McCarthy goes over the cliff

So we must shut Gitmo so the Supremes don't interfere, like they did in Boumedine. Got it.
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6 comments:

Tecumseh said...

This is where he loses me. Let’s put aside the facts that Gitmo is a perfect location in terms of safety and that we’ve spent boatloads of money to make it that way. All the good that Senator Graham is laboring to accomplish — and that’s a lot of good here, no question — would be wrecked by closing Gitmo and bringing the detainees into the country. Why work this hard just to throw it all away?

So what's wrong with McCarthy's logic? Sounds clear to me.

3/05/2010 5:58 PM
Mr roT said...

Right after that (as I mention on the front page) McC writes
The detainees are hostile aliens. As long as they are physically outside sovereign U.S. territory, they have no legitimate claim on the protections of the Bill of Rights. If Congress carefully crafts a detention procedure law along the lines of what Graham seems to be suggesting, there is a good chance that this new law would not be disturbed by the courts. That is, Congress would be in charge, and the terrorists would get only the rights Congress granted them.

Is it certain that this is how it would play out? No. After all, in Boumediene, the Supreme Court undid Senator Graham’s effort (in the Military Commissions Act) to keep the federal district courts from meddling in military detention proceedings.

Is it certain how it would work that if we keep Gitmo open the courts will stay out of this shit he means. The answer is no as the Supremes already established jurisdiction over Gitmo and in fact over anyone held by US forces.

So yeah, Gitmo is nice to have, but there's nothing sacrosanct about it as all this slobbering McC produces would suggest.

There's also Baghram and a million othe rplaces to do what we want with these guys, and they're not in the news 24/7.

My view is that closing Gitmo is foolish but not that big a deal, but if he can get Obama to accept the military tribunals for KSM and the rest, that is a lot more important.

Of course, ideally, Graham should get the mil trib concession out of the Dems and then let them suck shit on Gitmo. Seems he doesn't see it that way, and wants Congress to establish serious rules to separate the Judicial Branch from ALL OF THIS.

If he were to succeed, losing Gitmo would be well worth the price.

McC has just picked up some sort of monomania.

3/05/2010 6:10 PM
Tecumseh said...

I don't think losing Gitmo for some bullshit reason is a small thing. If nothing else, we spent gazzilion dollars (money that we don't really have, it's just borrowed money, à la Grecque) to set up that facility. Why junk it, and start from scratch, spending another gazzilion dollars for nothing? Do you ever think of what things cost, Herr Rott, or is it all Monopoly money to you?

3/05/2010 9:47 PM
Mr roT said...

Already have alternatives and no matter what, we're not getting the Gitmo money back.

That's not the issue and you know it. No one ever brought up the cost of Gitmo before.

3/06/2010 1:05 AM
Tecumseh said...

Tecs "green eyeshades" is bringing it up now. It's a free country, no? Why can't I bring up the close to a billion dollars spent on beefing up Gitmo, only to chuck it now for no reason? It's taxpayer's money (or at least, money lent by the Chinese, that now we need to pay back), no?

3/06/2010 10:39 AM
Mr roT said...

Bring it up all you want. I just think it is not as important as where the guys get tried and whether Congress sets up good protocol, that the Supremes don't fool around with, for dealing with the situation.

They can cage them up in Illinois, for all I care. I just don't want them tried in the county courthouse.

3/06/2010 10:54 AM

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