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daimyo
Monticello

Registered: 05/13/04
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Scalia Opinion on Guantanamo Inmates
#5447100 - 03/27/06 11:32 AM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Article
A US Supreme Court judge has ridiculed legal claims by detainees of Guantanamo Bay as "crazy" in a tape recording of a lecture obtained by the American magazine Newsweek.
The comments attributed to Judge Antonin Scalia were published a day before the Supreme Court begins hearing a challenge to the legality of special military tribunals for suspects held at the US prison camp in Cuba.
The case, brought by Osama bin Laden's driver, is the greatest challenge yet to President Bush?s powers to detain and try terrorist suspects.
"War is war, and it has never been the case that when you captured a combatant you have to give them a jury trial in your civil courts," Judge Scalia said, during a talk on March 8 at the University of Freiburg in Switzerland, according to Newsweek.
"Foreigners, in foreign countries, have no rights under the American Constitution... Nobody has ever thought otherwise."
Judge Scalia said that if a foreign combatant was captured by the US army on a battlefield, as prison camp was where he belonged.
"I had a son on that battlefield and they were shooting at my son, and I?m not about to give this man who was captured in a war a full jury trial. I mean it?s crazy." The conservative judge?s son, Matthew, fought in the Iraq war.
Judge Scalia also said he was "astounded" at the hypocritical reaction to the Guantanamo camp in Europe.
Some legal experts said that the comments could be a reason for Judge Scalia to withdraw from hearing the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan - who was Bin Laden?s driver from 1996 to 2001 - in which he is arguing that the US administration does not have the constitutional right to order special military trials.
The case may also examine the extent to which the Geneva Conventions protect Guantanamo detainees.
John Roberts, the chief justice of the US Supreme Court, has already withdrawn from the hearing, because he ruled on the Hamdan case while serving as an appeal court judge.
Last summer the Supreme Court, whose decisions must be followed by the US Government, dealt a defeat to President Bush when it ruled, 6-3, that Guantanamo prisoners could challenge their incarceration as ?enemy combatants? in US courts.
Foreign governments, including Downing Street, have criticised the tribunals as fundamentally unfair because the prisoners have no rights under the Geneva Conventions and limited rights as defendants.
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"I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
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AaronEvil
The GuitarVillain


Registered: 09/27/04
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Loc: California
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Re: Scalia Opinion on Guantanamo Inmates [Re: daimyo]
#5447301 - 03/27/06 12:30 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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I know a lot of you may try to crucify me for this, but I agree with him (EDIT**my mistake). If I was captured by an enemy force in a war I wouldnt be given a trial. Why should the POW's we take receive a trial?
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There is not a lot of difference between a fox hole and a grave; but knowing that you dug your ditch and climbed in anyway.
Edited by AaronEvil (03/27/06 02:37 PM)
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daimyo
Monticello

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Re: Scalia Opinion on Guantanamo Inmates [Re: AaronEvil]
#5447319 - 03/27/06 12:38 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Scalia is a he:

Also, not all(maybe not many) of the detainees were captured on the battlefields. I find it hard to classify someone as a POW if they were captured simply for living with a Taliban associate(or something similarly trivial).
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"I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
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Redstorm
Prince of Bugs



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Re: Scalia Opinion on Guantanamo Inmates [Re: daimyo]
#5447324 - 03/27/06 12:40 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Scalia's stand on this doesn't suprise me. The only problem I have is that I have read numerous accounts of people being put there who are not clearly enemy combatants. It gets tricky since this is not a conventional war.
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unbeliever
Yo Daddy!

Registered: 05/22/04
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Loc: Gallifrey
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Re: Scalia Opinion on Guantanamo Inmates [Re: AaronEvil]
#5447797 - 03/27/06 02:37 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
AaronEvil said: I know a lot of you may try to crucify me for this, but I agree with her. If I was captured by an enemy force in a war I wouldnt be given a trial. Why should the POW's we take receive a trial?
Because we're supposed to be better than they are.
-------------------- Happiness is a warm gun...
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AaronEvil
The GuitarVillain


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Re: Scalia Opinion on Guantanamo Inmates [Re: unbeliever]
#5447824 - 03/27/06 02:43 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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I disagree with the statement that we are "supposed to be better then they are" when it refers to giving some of these people trials. Now, I do agree that we should be better than them and not murder, rape, torture, or do anything like that to these people; but, giving them a trial (to me) sounds like we are then giving them the same rights that we as US citizens have.
I will agree that it is hard to tell who is and isnt a direct enemy. In other words, we cant be sure that some of the people we pick up are planning on shooting us or bombing us. As it works in the US however, association is in itself a crime; and, because we are taught that from when we are little to when we die, a lot of these people are enemies if only by associating themselves with someone that my be a direct threat to either us as a country or our troops. Its also hard for us, as forum posters who have probably never been in a combat zone such as these, to judge who should and should not be picked up as a prisoner. So, I have to go on the assumption (since I have no first hand experience with this situation) that we are picking up the right people for the right "crimes" and therefore I do not think they should get a trial.
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There is not a lot of difference between a fox hole and a grave; but knowing that you dug your ditch and climbed in anyway.
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Luddite
I watch Fox News


Registered: 03/23/06
Posts: 2,946
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Re: Scalia Opinion on Guantanamo Inmates [Re: AaronEvil]
#5447958 - 03/27/06 03:27 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Why don't we just cut their heads off while making a video out of it and post the videos on the internet somewhere?
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AaronEvil
The GuitarVillain


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Re: Scalia Opinion on Guantanamo Inmates [Re: Luddite]
#5448161 - 03/27/06 04:21 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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If you were running military operations and you did that I wouldnt disagree with it completely just as I wasnt too upset about the prison photos and such. We say we are better than them and I agree, but in times of war things NEED to be done in order to get other things accomplished. Example, holding someone hostage and threatening their life so you can get your taliban buddies out of prison. I also think that under the right circumstances torture is ok. Maybe not morally or ethically correct by my standards, but something that needs to be done to accomplish a goal. Luckily I am not in a possition where I would have to decide these things. With that said, I cant judge the people who do order that stuff to happen because they are acting in the best interest of the "war" effort and trying to find the quickest solution to a common problem.
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There is not a lot of difference between a fox hole and a grave; but knowing that you dug your ditch and climbed in anyway.
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