|
Washington, DC – Congressman Bill Shuster heard testimony today on the standards for military commissions and tribunals for trials involving war crimes. The Armed Services Committee discussed the legislative options available to ensure the United States Government is allowed to try terrorists for war crimes committed in the Global War on Terrorism. Today’s hearing was in response to the Supreme Court’s decision encouraging Congressional involvement in shaping this policy.
Justice Clarence Thomas, in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, which ruled against trying terrorists through military tribunals, summed today’s War on Terry by saying we are "not engaged in a traditional battle with a nation-state, but with a world-wide, hydra-headed enemy, who lurks in the shadows conspiring to reproduce the atrocities of September 11, 2001, and who has boasted of sending suicide bombers into civilian gatherings, has proudly distributed videotapes of beheadings of civilian workers, and has tortured and dismembered captured American soldiers."
"Contrary to how Democrats and some of the talking heads in the media want to spin this, the Supreme Court’s decision does not release any of the killers held at Guantanamo Bay," said Shuster, a member of the Armed Services Committee. "We need to keep in mind that most of the terrorists held there were caught on the battlefield fighting U.S. troops, and that they are not Americans in our criminal justice system – they are enemies who would plot against us again if released. And we cannot discount the intelligence they have provided, which has been used by law enforcement to thwart terror plots here in America."
The Armed Services panel today considered a variety of issues that need to be addressed when determining how to try terrorists, including how to handle sensitive classified information, how to involve witnesses from the frontlines, how sworn affidavits will be considered, and more.
Expert witnesses who testified at today’s hearing include Mr. Steven Bradbury, Acting Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, Department of Justice; Mr. Daniel J. Dell'Orto, Principal Deputy General Counsel, Department of Defense; Honorable Theodore Olson, Former Solicitor General of the United States; and Rear Admiral John Hutson, U.S. Navy (ret.), Dean, Franklin Pierce Law Center, Former Judge Advocate General, U.S. Navy. |
|
