Military executions of detainees in Guantanamo? Yes, it's now possible.
Saw this in the New York Times today:
RULES COULD ALLOW GUANTÁNAMO EXECUTIONS The Army has issued new regulations for carrying out military executions that could allow the death penalty to be administered at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where more than 500 foreign terrorism suspects are being held. The regulations, issued last week, give the secretary of the Army authority to designate locations for military executions, replacing old rules that required them to take place at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. That could open the way for executions of detainees at Guantánamo, although none of the 10 prisoners there who have been charged with war crimes are facing capital punishment. A law signed by President Bush in December bars federal courts from hearing habeas corpus petitions from Guantánamo detainees challenging their confinement. Eugene Fidell, a Washington specialist in military law, said the Bush administration might have feared that bringing detainees to the United States for execution would allow them to challenge their sentences in federal court once they were no longer at Guantánamo. DAVID S. CLOUD (NYT)
That story's location is halfway down this page. Here's a similar one.
I found this story to be unsettling. But after a little digging, I found out that the above stories are spun anti-war. Check out the Reuters story which has much better background information. It's like the other articles gutted the whole middle section of this story. I don't really think the media is as biased as conservatives claim, but when I see evidence of it, it pisses me off.
So, armed with this new info, has my opinion changed? Hell no. Maybe the intent of the law is not related to Guantanamo and the "War on Terra". Doesn't matter. If the regulation-writers didn't see all the ramifications of their new policy, then they failed. Go back, start over.
How long have those detainees been locked up? Are they guilty? If not, let them go. "But if we let them go, they'll just go home and start fighting us!" Oh, so we keep them locked up because of crimes they might commit? Is that the American way? What about the ones that are guilty and could be executed? Are we gonna be able to see the military tribunal in action? Or will it be secret?
In other news, Alito has been confirmed today. At first, the fact that he associated himself with Concerned Alumni of Princeton made me think he might have racist/sexist tendencies. But while I was Googling for info about this, I found this column on Slate (read from "CAP and Gown" until end of page) which paints him as a conservative wanna-be who listed this affiliation because he thought it would look good.
So now I don't think Alito is bad because he's a racist or sexist. Instead I think he's bad because he's a dumbass.
