On Meet the Press a few minutes ago, he stated bluntly he would not close it tomorrow, he would do it right now, move the prisoners into the federal court system and let them have lawyers, this is what America is about, we have been prosecuting people for 2 centuries, the legal system is part of what makes America the nation it is.
The world is not going to end if you give these people the right to Habeas Corpus. General Powell thank you, I am sorry it took you to many years to publicly state your position. You had a stellar career by anyone's standards until the speech at the UN to justify the war.
He also just admitted that he is an advisor to Barack Obama on international affairs, he appears to be supporting Barack as he just stated he is supporting the best person in his view to be President, political parties mean nothing to him.
I will update this more as the interview progresses this is to me a major acknowledgement. Bush's first Secretary of State wants GITMO closed and right now.
Publishers update by Kerry
Here is the quote from the interview:
POWELL: They are. Guantanamo has become a major, a major problem for America’s perception — as it’s seen, the way the world perceives America. And if it was up to me, I would close Guantanamo — not tomorrow, this afternoon. I’d close it. And I’d not let any of those people go. I would simply move them to the United States and put them into our federal legal system. The concern was, well, then they’ll have access to lawyers, then they’ll have access to writs of habeas corpus. So what? Let them. Isn’t that what our system’s all about? And by the way, America, unfortunately, has too many people in jail, all of whom had lawyers and access to writs of habeas corpus. And so we can handle bad people in our system. And so I would get rid of Guantanamo and I’d get rid of the military commissions system, and use established procedures in federal law or in the manual for courts martial. I would do that because it’s more equatable and it’s more understandable in constitutional terms. But I’d also do it because every morning I pick up a paper and some authoritarian figure, some person somewhere, is using Guantanamo to hide their own misdeeds. So essentially we have shaken the belief that the world had in America’s justice system by keeping a place like Guantanamo open and creating things like the military commission. We don’t need it, and it’s causing us far more damage than any good we get for it. But remember what I started this discussion saying, don’t let any of them go. Put them in a different system, a system that is experienced, that knows how to handle people like this.
Crossposted at Daily Kos
__________________________
