Posted by
Cary Wesberry on Saturday, July 05, 2008 6:28:38 PM
WASHINGTON — The White House said Thursday that dangerous detainees at Guantanamo Bay could end up walking Main Street U.S.A. as a result of last month's Supreme Court ruling about detainees' legal rights. Federal appeals courts, however, have indicated they have no intention of letting that happen.
The high court ruling, which gave all detainees the right to petition federal judges for immediate release, has intensified discussions within the Bush administration about what to do with the roughly 270 detainees held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
"I'm sure that none of us want Khalid Sheikh Mohammed walking around our neighborhoods," White House press secretary Dana Perino said about Al Qaeda's former third in command.
President Bush strongly disagreed with the Supreme Court decision that the foreigners held under indefinite detention at Guantanamo have the right to seek release in civilian courts. The 5-4 ruling was the third time the justices had repudiated Bush on his approach to holding the suspects outside the protections of U.S. law.
The legal ramifications of the Supreme Court decision remain fuzzy, but it's unlikely that a federal appeals court would order a detainee released into the United States even if a judge finds that the government was holding the detainee improperly. A court might tell the Bush administration to let a prisoner go, but it presumably would be up to the executive branch to figure out where.
Why is it that I don't trust the Justice Department with terrorists caught on the battlefield? The White House was being responsible to the American People by holding terrorists at Gitmo instead of on our soil, and the White House is being responsible today in alerting us to the possibility of released terrorists roaming our neighborhoods. I see no reason to believe an appeals court judge will be as concerned with our immediate safety as the President of the United States who ordered the war against these monsters to begin with. This was a terribly stupid decision by the Supreme Court and it's probable more Americans will die as a result.