(text from within article)
On September 3, 2013, I received a cut-and-pasted letter
ripped from the original August 19 memo. The letter, sent under the
signature of Military Commission Chief of Staff Michael Quinn, denies
our request and reiterates that the five NGOs “were selected due to
their ability to reach an international audience, their experience with
international human rights in criminal trials and their stated mission
to advance human rights through advocacy and respect for the law.” Of
course, Judicial Watch fits all those criteria.
Quinn ends by expressing appreciation for “Judicial Watch’s interest
in the conduct of military commissions” and invites JW to watch
proceedings on closed-circuit television at Fort Meade, Maryland, if we
don’t make the cut for a trip to GTMO.
The Pentagon has yet to provide any response to our concern that they
are giving five permanent “observer” seats to what in effect is the
defense bar for terrorists. Again, we’re the only conservative
organization that has, at great expense, participated as observers in
these proceedings. And now we’ve been told that we may not be invited
to future 9/11 terrorist criminal proceedings there.
Let me boil this down. President Obama has stated on a number of
occasions that he intends to shut GTMO down. He said it during his first
presidential campaign. He said it again the day he took office. And he
said it again as recently as May 2013.
Thus far, public opposition to the notion of releasing terrorists
into the courts or onto the streets altogether, has prevented Obama from
fulfilling this promise. In order to build his case, he needs to
control the messaging coming out of the GTMO proceedings and persuade
the public to adopt his anti-GTMO stance. The way to do that is to
simply cherry-pick a group of “friendlies” to “monitor” and report on
what takes place. It’s as simple as that.
This administration has demonstrated time and time again hostility to
alternative viewpoints. And this is just another in a long line of
examples. Judicial Watch will continue to protest this new policy while
continuing our work to bring fairness and objectivity and, yes, “respect
for the rule of law” to the efforts to monitor GTMO. And we intend to
do it live, not on television.
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- Judy Chaffee
- This site is the inspiration of a former reporter/photographer for one of New England's largest daily newspapers and for various magazines. The intent is to direct readers to interesting political articles, and we urge you to visit the source sites. Any comments may be noted on site or directed to KarisChaf at gmail.
Saturday, September 21, 2013
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