Guantanamo Bay Reportedly Nears Closure
 

Story here.

Well, no shit. But you know, when you're facing prosecution by the United States government, there's this whole "Constitution" thing to deal with and all its silly ideas about due process under the law.

UGH, FINALLY. It's funny how the "Justice" Department is against giving these people trials. Oh wait, it's not funny, it's really, really pathetic.

Actually, unless if the provision under the Patriot Act evaporated when I wasn't looking, if they charged them in a certain capacity they could in turn place them before a military tribunal with full control over what, if any, evidence was put forth for and against, with the total penalty being DEATH if they so wish.

God I love the PA. it's so huggably nice.

It's only the prison that's closing. The base itself will still be active.

I think there was a Supreme Court ruling saying no, you actually have to give these people some kind of due process. At which point the whole thing falls apart since due to the atrocious way the whole thing has been conducted, nothing that isn't a wretched parody of a justice system is going to take any proof the state could present in its favor as even slightly legitimate.

Truthfully this has a big whiff of ain't-gonna-happen, they've been stalling for a while now and this latest bit of "no we're double plus for serious gonna close it, just give us five more minutes Mom!" seems like one more delay to try and run out the clock until they can retry the issue in front of the newly constituted Supreme Court, which currently has a big hardon for shitting on due process.

Does this mean the U.S. is done keeping prisoners outside of the country, or just that they'll close this one down, but might be able to open similar prisons elsewhere? If this is just a means of quieting down protest, then it really doesn't solve anything.

I think it's a little late for that, now.

But I agree with fifth on this. It doesn't really seem like they have any intention on shutting Guantanamo down, rather that it's a stall tactic to try to keep world opinion happy.

Even if they do, they just send the prisoners someplace else, and then you have the whole mess start over again. There's still plenty of places in the world where they could set up a prison and not have to worry about trivialities like human dignity.

Nah. The prisoners at Guantanamo will almost certainly get due process, if the prison is closed. They're all too high-profile. Its the classified Black Sites that would probably remain operational. After all, if Guantanamo was in legal "outer space," where are they?

Of course, that is if Guantanamo prison ever does close, as the government's efforts to close it have been, as everyone's already mentioned, dodgy and delayed at best.

Yeah I kind of doubted that a little thing like being in the country illeagally would stop us from keeping the base there.

But wouldn't moving the prisoners kind of break that 50 year old embargo we have on stuff coming out of Cuba XD

Seriously though...The Justice Department will move them to a more comfortable place but they won't give them a fair trial or let them be put on trial in their own countries...

Though I suppose if playing Phoenix Wright and watching Law and Order have taught me anything it's that you need proof to procecute some one...and last I checked saying "You're a bad person because we say so" doesn't really hold up in any court of law...I'm sure there are bad people there but I am also just as sure there are people there who are honestly innocent of any crime...

unfortunatly Bush seems to think that being Muslim is a crime...though I seem to remember a certain legal document saying that Religious beliefs are protected in America...But that's why the Patriot act was created...to bypass the whole Constitution and say that the rights in the Bill of Rights are apparently not for all humans but only for Americans (and some times even not all Americans only the people who don't protest the President's plans and actions)

But hey the governement is wrapping up the whole Gauntanamo Bay prison closing like a great big present that they are giving the prisoners. And then the Government will say something to the effect of "Look how merciful we are!"

Yeah you guys should get the Humanitarian of the Year award...

DBS

Well, I dunno. I mean, Guantanamo is WAY too high-profile in the media nowadays. I don't see the Justice Department getting away with just filing those prisoners off to some undisclosed location to keep processing them endlessly. Not without some HUGE legal dance steps that I don't see Congress approving any time soon. Will their trials REALLY be fair? Maybe not. Will they be as full as any trial any American would get? Sure as hell. Too many people would make too much of a fuss at too many levels for that to not be the case, if the base's prison gets closed at all. Not that that won't mean the US isn't keeping its Black Sites, but those aren't publicized enough to garner the media attention that Guantanamo is.