Originally published July 3 2005
Congress not acting on Guantanamo Bay issue
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
While the U.S. does not have jurisdiction over the judicial process in Guantanamo Bay, members of Congress are meeting to discuss prisoners' rights in the wake of mounting criticism against the current human rights violations.
The Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee challenged Congress Wednesday to help define legal rights of terrorism detainees at Guantanamo Bay, bemoaning a "crazy quilt" system.
Pentagon and law-enforcement officials defended current practices at the U.S. military prison camp.
Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said as his panel took testimony on practices and policies at the U.S. military camp at an American Navy base in Cuba.
Rear Admiral James M. McGarrah, who monitors the "enemy combatant" detention program for the Navy, told the panel that of the 558 detainees given hearings at Guantanamo, Cuba, 520 were "properly classified" as enemy combatants.
"Because of the highly unusual nature of the global war on terror, and because we do not want to detain any person longer than as necessary, we've taken this unprecedented and historic action to establish this process to permit enemy combatants to be heard while conflict is ongoing," McGarrah said.
Full Image Michael Wiggins, deputy associate attorney general, told the committee that each Guantanamo detainee was given a formal hearing in front of a review panel to ensure they were all properly classified as enemy combatants.
But he acknowledged that the detainees were not being held "for criminal justice purposes, and is not part of our nation's criminal justice system."
Their detention "serves the vital military objectives of preventing captured combatants from rejoining the conflict and gathering intelligence to further the overall war effort, and to prevent additional attacks against our country," Wiggins said.
Joseph Biden, D-Del., shakes hands with Brig.
Rumsfeld said the military has no other facility that could accommodate that many prisoners.
Thomas L. Hemingway told the panel, "America is at war.
Leahy questioned the administration's assertion that the prison camp was an essential part of the U.S.-led war on terror.
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