America could keep Gitmo detainees, even if acquitted
Tuesday a representative of the Obama administration said that the U.S. could continue to detain non-U.S. citizens in facilities like Gitmo, even if they have been acquitted of terrorism charges by an American military commission.
The Defense Department’s chief lawyer, Jeh Johnson, told the Senate Armed Forces Committee that releasing a detainee who has been tried and found not guilty was a policy decision that officials would have to make based on their estimates of whether or not the accused posed a future threat.
But why should there be a different standard for Americans than non-U.S. citizens? Hundreds of criminals who were probably guilty as sin have been acquitted only to return to society and harm others. If a military commission cannot find enough evidence to convict an individual of terrorism charges, why should the American government be allowed continue to hold these people when any other justice system could not?
And it is safe to say that the Obama administration (or any other administration for that matter) would not stand by while another country implemented an equivalent policy. Just weeks ago, injustices toward former Northwestern University student Roxanna Saberi topped the U.S. diplomatic agenda because she was being unfairly detained. And she was found guilty in a court of law. Admittedly, the court system of Iran does not have the same tradition of justice that its American counterpart has. But Iran found Saberi to be a threat, just as the American government finds these Gitmo detainees to be threats.
If we are just going to hold these people anyway, maybe the American government should lose the pretenses of justice and skip the trial all together. Either way, the standard of the American justice system is not being upheld.
Full Wall Street Journal article: Detainees, even if acquitted, might not go free