The Senate’s question regarding detainees at Guantánamo Bay is no longer about whether or not they should get a fair trial, but where they should get it. If it helps your initial reaction, the detainees we’re talking about here are accused of having a hand in plotting the 9/11 attacks. The choice: military commissions at Gitmo vs. federal courts in the U.S.? It’s not quite obvious.
The article does not clarify which branch of the federal court system they’d be using, but I doubt they’re talking about district courts of the kind we’d see on Law & Order. It might go all the way to the SCOTUS. Nonetheless, a quorum in the Senate believes this option should still be on the table, opposing the measure made by two Republicans (Sens. Lindsey Graham [R-SC] and John McCain [R-AZ), one Democrat (Sen. Jim Webb [D-VA]), and one Independent (Sen. Joe Lieberman [I-CT]).
One member of the opposition to this measure is Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who says the decision is best made by “professional prosecutors.” I assume this is a hint to both Congress and the White House that neither one of them is fully equipped to handle the situation. On the other hand, they’ll be considering angles that prosecutors might not (budgeting, etc.), so perhaps their decision ought to come after that of whichever prosecutor to whose opinion they see fit to defer.
I agree with the 54 against (versus 45 for) that all options should be on the table when it comes to these suspects, just in case, short of shooting them on the spot. That would feel damn good, but it wouldn’t get any necessary information out of them. But let’s be honest: Is it really viable to try 9/11 suspects in a U.S. court? I’m not worried that their mere presence on the continent will be harmful to national security or anything like that, but wouldn’t it make more sense to have them tried by people who have been trained specifically in the art of military law?
More importantly, why should they be tried only by Americans? The 9/11 attacks were indeed targeted at the U.S., but if these five hadn’t been caught, they could have easily set their sights elsewhere. And the attacks were a violation of international law. I know world courts aren’t treated with much enthusiasm by Western defense hawks, but they could at least attempt to work in conjunction.
And as for the rights groups who insist that federal courts will work best: These ain’t your grandma’s detainees we’re talking about.
Those concerned about whether Gitmo defendants can get a fair trial in the military courts should take note that at least one accused whose case was transferred to a civilian court begged the court to let him keep his military lawyer.