By Kenneth J. Theisen, 4/4/07
On Thursday, March 29, 2007 Defense Secretary Robert M.
Gates appeared before the House Appropriations Committee’s defense
subcommittee. He told the committee that he thinks the “trials” now held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
should be moved to courts inside the U.S. He stated, “My own view is that because
of things that happened earlier at Guantanamo,
there is a taint about it. I felt that no matter how transparent, no matter how
open the trials, if they took place at Guantanamo,
in the international community they would lack credibility.” He indicated
his support for closing down the prison at Guantanamo.
But before you begin to think that we now have a card carrying
member of the ACLU as Secretary of Defense let’s examine another statement of
his before the committee. He asked
Congress to consider legislation to deal with alleged terrorists “who really
need to be incarcerated forever, but that doesn’t get them involved in a
judicial system where there is a potential of them being released, frankly.” He
went on to say, “Now, I’m not the attorney general; I’m not a lawyer. It
may be that it requires some kind of a statutory approach to deal with it in
terms of how do you keep these people – who are self-confessed terrorists, who
will come back and attack the United States if they’re ever released – for the
long term.”
What Gates really wants is a system of tribunals that will
still railroad the defendants, but not be so transparently seen as kangaroo
courts like those at Guantanamo.
Of course there should be no chance of
them being found not guilty and being released, but we should at least have the
appearance of fairness so that we can mislead world public opinion. Public relations, not justice, should be the
goal.
It is obvious that his only real concern is how the Bush
regime looks to the rest of the world when it holds these mock trials. But frankly Mr. Secretary, a kangaroo hearing
in the U.S.
will be as transparent as those held at Gitmo.
If it hops like a kangaroo and has a pouch with a joey in it, it’s a
kangaroo no matter what you call it.