I just read an
item on Wesley Clark's plan for trying the detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark said yesterday that suspected terrorists being held at Guantanamo Bay should be put on trial before an international court.
"I think they should be tried. I think we should convene an international court like the international criminal court," he said. "Not as prisoners of war, but give them lawyers and put them on trial."
Clark, a former Army general and Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, was asked by a Saint Anselm College student whether he agreed with recent comments by the wife of Democratic candidate John Kerry. Teresa Heinz Kerry said the detainees should be given prisoner of war status and denying them protections of the Geneva Convention is "insulting, ignorant and insensitive" to the rest of the world.
About 660 people suspected of taking part in terrorist activity are being held at the prison on the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Many, believed to be members of al-Qaida or the Taliban, were captured in Afghanistan and Pakistan two years ago in the war on terrorism.
The Bush administration has said its top priority is interrogating the detainees for intelligence on any planned terrorist attacks.
Officials have said the prisoners either would be tried by U.S. military tribunals, held indefinitely in Cuba or sent home if their governments could be trusted to handle them properly. But Clark said if he were president, he would set up an international tribunal.
"I would've done that at the outset after 9-11," he said.
I think this is a pretty good idea for several reasons.
First, it's the right thing to do. If there are actual terrorists and/or war criminals, they should be brought to justice. And it is wrong to detain indefinitely those who have committed no crimes. For instance, recent accounts have suggested that many individuals were either mistakenly caught in the US dragnet or actualy kidnapped by Afghani warlords in exchange for US bounty payments.
Second, it is right to give defendants certain procedural protections available in an international tribunal that they would not get before a military tribunal. Without these protections, we cannot be sure that we have accurately identified real terrorists and criminals.
Third, using an international tribunal will help include the rest of the world in the struggle against terrorism, will demonstrate U.S. commitment to human rights and the rule of law, and will help appease our disgruntled allies.
Have any of the other candidates taken on a postion on the Guantanamo detainees?