According to the Washington Post, the Obama administration may transfer some Guantanamo Bay Detainees to federal prisons in New York and Virginia to stand trial for acts of terrorism. The plan would undoubtedly set off very passionate NIMBY ("not in my back yard") politics. In the past, however, the United States has prosecuted terrorism suspects in New York and Virginia, and some of those individuals are currently serving sentences at a high security prison in Colorado.
Federal officials from Homeland Security, the FBI, CIA, Department of Justice, and the Department of State will review files of the remaining 241 Guantanamo Bay detainees. The review process will determine "whether to prosecute inmates in federal court, transfer them home or to third countries, or possibly resettle some of them in the United States."
Human Rights Groups Will Probably Get a "Mixed Bag"
Human rights groups have insisted that individuals detained in the war against terrorism receive access to ordinary civilian courts. They have challenged the use of military courts and indefinite detention of suspects.
While members of the Obama administration have expressed a preference for using federal courts when possible, they have not eliminated the possibility of creating "a new system of detention for cases where there is not enough evidence to prosecute someone in the regular courts, but the suspect is deemed too dangerous to release." "A new system of detention" is a vague concept, but it does not sound like an idea that complies with the demands for justice that human rights groups have made with respect to Guantanamo Bay.
No comments:
Post a Comment