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Congress members sponsor bill
to shutter Guantanamo Bay
Michael Roston
Raw
Story
Tuesday May 08, 2007
One week after a similar measure was introduced in the Senate
by California Democrat Dianne Feinstein, two members of the House
of Representatives have introduced a bill to close the detention
center for accused terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, RAW STORY has learned.
"Guantánamo has become a liability. The real and perceived
injustices occurring there have given our enemies an easy example
of our failures and alleged ill intent," said Rep. Jane Harman
(D-CA), who chairs the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence,
Information Sharing & Terrorism Risk Assessment, and co-sponsored
the measure. "It has become a stinging symbol of our tarnished
standing abroad."
Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-HI) agreed in the statement sent to RAW
STORY, adding that "The Bush Administration has been able to
ignore the hypocrisy in preaching about human rights to other countries
while detainees who have been accused - but never charged - are
denied fundamental justice in Guantánamo. However, the rest
of the world has not ignored it."
Harman and Abercrombie timed the legislation the day before a hearing
in the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee to be chaired by Rep.
Jim Moran (D-VA), who has been tasked by Subcommittee Chairman Rep.
John Murtha (D-PA) with exploring how the base can be closed.
The first panel for the May 9 hearing will meet in a closed session
with government witnesses, including Rear Admiral Harry B. Harris,
Jr, Commander, Joint Task Force-Guantanamo, and Daniel J. Dell’Orto,
Principal Deputy General Counsel at the Pentagon Department of Defense.
Dell'Orto, as noted last week at RAW STORY, has argued against
closing Guantanamo.
"To abandon this carefully crafted system and attempt to transplant
the trials of enemy combatants into the civilian courts would be
ill-advised, as would be transplanting the commissions themselves
from the secure facility at Guantanamo to some unspecified location
in the United States," he said in a Senate Armed Services Committee
hearing two weeks ago.
Rep. Harman made it clear that alternatives existed to Guantanamo
Bay, pointing to options such as transfer to a detainee's country
of origin, transfer to a facility in the United States to be tried
before military or civilian authorities (like the 1993 World Trade
Center bombers and John Walker Lindh), transfer to a qualified international
tribunal, or release when appropriate.
"Make no mistake: this legislation is not about setting terrorists
free. Many of those held at Gitmo are the worst of the worst - hard-core
haters who cannot be rehabilitated. This legislation is about being
true to America's most fundamental values and legal norms,"
Harman concluded.
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