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Location: LaGrange, Kentucky, United States

The opinions and interests of a husband, analyst and Iraq war veteran.



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Thursday, January 20, 2005

New ruling concerning detainees

via Michelle Malkin:
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled that Congress had authorized the president to order the detention of "enemy combatants" for the duration of the war on terror.

The lawsuit by seven of the roughly 550 detainees being held at the U.S. Navy base failed to show valid legal grounds to overturn that power, Leon said. As a result, the proper place to contest their detainment is before military review boards, not federal courts.
I believe this to be the proper thinking. A captured enemy combatant simply does not enjoy the same rights and privileges as American citizens. Period.

That said, our military justice system is seriously flawed and unfair. Unfair to it's military members as well as foreign detainees. For instance, a soldier on leave who is arrested off base for a DUI will first go through the civilian courts before receiving additional punishment from his command, clearly an end run around double jeopardy.

The US civilian court system is not the place to remedy this heavily antiquated system. Congress ordered the current Uniform Code of Military Justice into law in 1950 with major revisions in '68 and '83. It's again time for Congress to make an overhaul.

Under current parameters, our military is hampered in it's efforts to effectively interrogate captured enemies, forced to hand down punishments to it's own members disproportionate to the crime, and ultimately it will be forced to hand off foreign prisoners to allied countries where their rights and safety cannot be garunteed. This is unacceptable.

Appalled by alleged abuses at Gitmo? Write your congressman. Appalled by detainees using the Supreme Court to circumvent interrogation? Write your congressman.

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