Senate to block Guantanamo transfers as well

[darrels joy]

Senate to block Guantanamo transfers as well

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posted at 10:55 am on December 15, 2010 by Ed Morrissey
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Last week, House Democrats on the Appropriations Committee inserted a codicil into next year’s spending plan to prohibit federal funds to be used for the purpose of transferring detainees at Guantanamo Bay to the US for any purpose during FY2011. Whether this came as a slap from progressives angered over Barack Obama’s tax deal or from moderates angered at the response from progressives to it, the move certainly caught the attention of the White House. Eric Holder decried it as an unprecedented intrusion on executive authority and demanded its removal, apparently unaware of the Constitution and the House’s “power of the purse” to check the executive branch’s overreach.

Now the Senate has followed suit and included the same ban in its version of FY2011 funding:

The Senate is moving to block President Barack Obama from transferring Guantanamo Bay prisoners to the United States.
An unreleased draft of a bill expected to pass this month essentially puts a nine-month hold on Guantanamo transfers.

That includes Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, who had been slotted for trial in New York before Obama bowed to political resistance and blocked the Justice Department’s plans.

The AP can’t resist adding an editorial comment at the end:

It already looked as if, in the decade after 9/11, no one would face trial for the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil. The Senate bill would make that a near certainty.

That decision has nothing to do with this defunding of detainee transfers. Congress has repeatedly authorized military commissions to adjudicate the 9/11 terrorists as well as other detainees captured abroad by military and intelligence assets during a time of war. This not only follows the precedents set over the entirety of our national history, it provides more safeguards and routes of appeal than we have allowed in any other commission system. Even the Obama administration apparently agrees, as it is processing some of Gitmo’s detainees through that system.

That seems to be one of the reasons that Congress is now stripping the executive branch of funds to move detainees to federal courts. The Obama administration has acted in defiance of multiple efforts by Congress — including a Democratic-led Congress — to establish the military commissions as the court of jurisdiction for terrorists captured outside the US by military and intelligence units. Elected officials from both parties have objected to trying these terrorists in federal court, especially in New York, where Denocrats like Senator Chuck Schumer and Governor Andrew Cuomo both demanded that Obama cancel the trial in Manhattan. On top of that, Holder’s DoJ suffered an embarrassing verdict in the Ahmed Ghailani trial in which the terrorist defendant won acquittals on all but one conspiracy charge after the presiding judge barred an important witness due to Ghailani’s interrogation by intelligence assets.

It seems we have reached consensus on the notion of civilian-court trials for Gitmo detainees — and the Obama White House is outside of it.

http://hotair.com/archives/2010/12/1...sfers-as-well/

[1CAVCCO15MED]

Here is the record for the military tribunals in Guantanamo:

Commission Cases

Name Charges Verdict Dates
David Hicks Providing material support for terrorism[11] Found guilty, sentenced to seven years in prison (only served nine months of penalty, mostly in Australia, under terms of plea agreement) Charged: February 3, 2007[11]
Sentenced: March 30, 2007
Arrived in Australia: May 20, 2007
Released: December 29, 2007
Salim Hamdan Conspiracy; providing material support for terrorism Acquitted on conspiracy charge; found guilty for providing material support and sentenced to five and a half years (66 months) in prison (credited for 61 months in detention) Captured: November 24, 2001
Charged: May 10, 2007
Sentenced: August 7, 2008
Transferred to Yemen: November 26, 2008[12]
Released: December 27, 2008
Ali Hamza al-Bahlul conspiracy, solicitation to commit murder, and providing material support for terrorism Sentenced to life imprisonment without parole Charged: February 9, 2008
Sentenced: November 4, 2008[13]
Ibrahim al Qosi Captured: December 2001
Omar Khadr Murder in violation of the law of war; attempted murder in violation of the law of war; conspiracy; providing material support for terrorism; spying Charged: February 2, 2007
Sufyian Barhoumi
Ghassan al-Shirbi
Jabran al-Qahtani
Benyam Mohammed All charges dropped
Abdul Zahir
Mohamed Jawad Three counts of attempted murder; three counts of committing serious bodily harm All charges withdrawn and dismissed.
Charged: October 11, 2007
Won his habeas corpus: July 30, 2009.
Charges withdrawn and dismissed: 31 July 2009.

[revwardoc]

Is there any way those asshats can be shot during a mass escape attempt?

[reconeil]

"...shot during mass escape attempt" is a good joke.

After all & realistically,...solely grand parent peaceful & patriotic type: "Tea Partyers" will ever be possibly Ordered Shot by Obama's TOP ENFORCER or Attorney General Eric Holder. All those I saw proudly waving little American Flags,...looked like some Mean Mothers.

Besides, all know that Muslims in general are basically: "Good People" whom mean US no harm whatsoever,...& should all be set free to once again do: "The Work of Allah".

Maybe a few pot-shots at Beck, Hannity & Malkin by: "His Barackness" might also divert?

Neil

[reconeil]

Forgot to mention it.

But, did you notice that typical Audacity of Ruling Elite in general?

Regarding that sensible Senate Block,.......................................
Eric Holder: "Demanded its removal"!!!

WOW!!! & whoop-whoopy-do Her Oben Fuhrer Holder!
Those senators must all be quaking in their shoes?

Neil