To the Editor:
Re “Panel Misses a Deadline in Reviewing Guantánamo” (news article, July 21): Citing unnamed Obama administration officials, you report that the administration is considering proposals for the “indefinite detention” without charge or trial of Guantánamo detainees “who the government determines are a significant security threat but cannot be tried because of the lack of usable evidence.”
Despite its repetition by the administration, often without challenge by the media, the premise that Guantánamo holds a substantial number of people who are too dangerous to release but cannot be prosecuted is groundless.
Federal prosecutors have an imposing array of weapons against suspected terrorists, including laws criminalizing “material support” for terrorism. In recent years, defendants have been convicted of material support for attending terrorist training camps, attempting to provide medical aid to injured fighters and even supplying funds for the humanitarian activities of designated terrorist groups. A detainee who cannot be prosecuted under such sweeping laws is unlikely to pose a “significant security threat.”
Moreover, if the government’s evidence is not “usable” in court because of the brutal methods employed to obtain it, then surely it is not “usable” or reliable enough to justify long-term imprisonment without charge or trial.
Our existing courts have proved time and again that they are well equipped to handle terrorism cases without compromising our fundamental values.
Ben Wizner
New York, July 21, 2009
The writer is a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Security Project.
Note from KBJ: I'm willing to have the detainees tried in federal court when Ben Wizner is willing to have them incarcerated near his home.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 