During a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on legal rights for Guantanamo detainees, Code Pink was there holding up signs and at least one mock detainee, wearing a black hood and orange jumpsuit, was seen changing seats as the witnesses spoke. That was the visual background for this Washington Times report:
Nearly 100 foreign enemy combatants to be tried at Guantanamo Bay will have more rights than Nazi war criminals who faced the Nuremberg tribunal, a Senate panel was told yesterday.
Detainees in the war on terror will have the presumption of innocence and an automatic appeal, the latter not even afforded to U.S. citizens, said Brig. Gen. Thomas W. Hartmann, legal adviser to the Convening Authority for the Office of Military Commissions. “No such presumption existed,” said Gen. Hartmann in reference to Nuremberg while speaking to the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on terrorism, technology and homeland security. “There were no rules of evidence, and virtually any evidence was freely admitted. “That was painfully apparent to those who were found guilty and received the death penalty — they were hung within hours and days of the completion of the sentence announcement,” he said.
Steven A. Engel, Justice Department deputy assistant attorney general, said that extending the peacetime notion of habeas corpus to military prisoners would be “unprecedented.” “In the nearly 800 years of the writ’s existence, no English or American court has ever granted habeas relief to alien enemy soldiers captured and detained during wartime,” Mr. Engel said.
Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin, Maryland Democrat, disagreed with the federal officials and said “these individuals are basically criminals” and that criminals have the right to habeas corpus.
In his opening statement, Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) provided details about the (at least) 30 former detainees who have returned to the battlefield to continue their murderous ways:
Senator Kyl then asked BG Hartmann and Mr. Engel about the unprecedented trial rights under the MCA:
Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) questioned Debra Burlingame about the effects of the firms conducting public relations on behalf of alleged terrorists (you can read her prepared testimony here):
You can read Mr. Richard Levick’s own words about his firms’ public relations efforts on behalf of alleged terrorists.
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