rssFederal Judge: If Torture Prevents Detainee Convictions, ‘So Be It’
Friday, January 22, 2010 at 1:15 pm
- 6 Comments
One concern that may animate the Obama administration’s Guantanamo task force deciding that about 50 detainees must be held indefinitely without trial is that the basis for any prosecution is evidence obtained through torture or abuse. Judge John Coughenour, a sitting federal judge on the U.S. District Court in Seattle, rejected that legal contention in a forum in New York.
If the United States can’t obtain convictions because it tortured detainees at Guantanamo, Coughenour said at a discussion hosted by the Constitution Project and the Open Society Institute, “So be it.” In those cases, the U.S. must simply accept that losing out on a prosecution is “part of the price you pay for being committed the way we are to due process and a constitutional process for convicting people.” As to the contention that those detainees are too dangerous for release, “the world is not at a loss for dangerous people,” said the judge, who presided at the trial of would-be Millenium bomber Ahmed Rassam in 2005.
In a separate statement, Anthony Romero, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said that it would be “an error of historic proportions” to institute indefinite detention without charge outside of Guantanamo. “While the administration should transfer prisoners to the U.S. for federal court trials, it should not create a ‘Gitmo North’ by bringing them to facilities in the U.S. or anywhere else to be illegally held without due process,” Romero said in the statement. “This practice was wrong in Cuba and would remain so here, reducing the closure of Guantánamo to a symbolic gesture.”
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6 Comments
Pingback posted January 22, 2010 @ 2:29 pm
[...] Attackerman also points out that Obama and Holder’s cunning plan to try terrorists in federal courts is going to be ugly at best. [...]
Comment posted January 22, 2010 @ 4:14 pm
Wow, there's something I haven't heard from a public official in too long: courage.
Trackback posted January 22, 2010 @ 5:59 pm
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Comment posted January 22, 2010 @ 6:26 pm
No kidding. Tell me of this “rule of law” I hear so much of…
Comment posted January 31, 2010 @ 2:02 am
What's happening is that the left-leaning, shallow-thinking President Obama, who mistakenly thought President George W. Bush was too rigid and harsh in his views, is gradually awakening to how dangerous a world it is. Obama is a good man. He mistakenly thought that bringing the principles of good relations among human beings, would serve him well as President. He was wrong. Human beings thrive on love, kindness, forgiveness towards one another. Nations require justice, not forgiveness, not Gandhi-style goodness towards the wicked. If Barak Obama, the individual, comes across a wicked person, his tendency is to be kind to him, to awaken him, to be brotherly. But Barak Obama the President cannot be kind to oppressors, to people who would destroy the nation. And his criticisms of his predecessor during the campaign and during his first year of office, are gradually giving way to his realization that protection of the nation requires that adherence to the principle of justice, even when people accuse him of rigidity, is what's required. He's been naive. He's been repeating liberal mantras against his predecessor. He is learning that these militants, these so-called Muslims, these murderers in the garb of martyrs, are not the most dangerous people in the world. — They are the most dangerous people in the *history* of the world.
Comment posted January 31, 2010 @ 7:02 am
What's happening is that the left-leaning, shallow-thinking President Obama, who mistakenly thought President George W. Bush was too rigid and harsh in his views, is gradually awakening to how dangerous a world it is. Obama is a good man. He mistakenly thought that bringing the principles of good relations among human beings, would serve him well as President. He was wrong. Human beings thrive on love, kindness, forgiveness towards one another. Nations require justice, not forgiveness, not Gandhi-style goodness towards the wicked. If Barak Obama, the individual, comes across a wicked person, his tendency is to be kind to him, to awaken him, to be brotherly. But Barak Obama the President cannot be kind to oppressors, to people who would destroy the nation. And his criticisms of his predecessor during the campaign and during his first year of office, are gradually giving way to his realization that protection of the nation requires that adherence to the principle of justice, even when people accuse him of rigidity, is what's required. He's been naive. He's been repeating liberal mantras against his predecessor. He is learning that these militants, these so-called Muslims, these murderers in the garb of martyrs, are not the most dangerous people in the world. — They are the most dangerous people in the *history* of the world.
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