The previous administrations’ policies on questioning and detaining accused terrorists were reasonable and fair. This all changed when the current Obama administration was elected. Since its inauguration, the Obama administration has banned almost all enhanced interrogation techniques, passed a bill that would allow accused terrorists to appeal their incarceration in the US court of their choice, and they have even started forcing soldiers to read any detained person their Miranda Rights. (NYPOST)
This current policy is backward and works against the interests of national security. First of all, in Miranda v. Arizona the Supreme Court held that all US citizens are to be given the right to consult an attorney during questioning, the right to avoid self-incriminating statements, and that these rights must be read and understood by the accused prior to any questioning by law enforcement. By mandating that accused foreign terrorists are to be read Miranda Rights the Obama administration is implying that they are to be treated with the same rights and privileges as US citizens. This implication of citizen’s rights has lead to accused terrorist being allowed to appeal their detention in US courts. This new law however fails to set limits on where they can appeal to and how many times they are allowed to enter the appeals process. These loopholes essentially allow any detainee held at the, now downsizing, Guantanamo Bay detention facility to appeal an unlimited amount of times to any court in the United States of their choosing. Hypothetically Osama Bin Laden could appeal his sentencing for the rest of his natural life to each and every court in every state. US citizens on death row are only offered one chance at appeal and even then only to the court nearest the place of their incarceration. This new law would, in effect, grant accused foreign terrorists more rights than US citizens and would infinitely complicate and muddle our legal system.
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I agree with you that there are some definite equality and fairness issues with terrorists at Guantanamo Bay having more rights than U.S. citizen prisoners. If someone is an accused terrorist then they should have no more rights than a U.S. citizen. I think maybe they should be allowed to make one appeal, but the court in which the appeal would be made at should be chosen by the government, not by the terrorist.
ReplyDeleteHow do you think the process should work? Do you think the accused terrorists should be able to make any appeals?
Spot on. The accused foreign terrorists should not be given the same rights of an American citizen. Through allowing alleged terrorists virtually unlimited appeals, taxpayer money and time are wasted. However, are the Miranda rights just US citizen rights or can they also be viewed as human rights for all?
ReplyDeleteI agree that the current adminstration's actions against detained terroist is counter productive to national seucurtiy. The miranda right cluase applying to terroist sickens me. I disagree that the previous adminstrations treatment towards terriost was fair though. Reports came out the nearly half of detain prisoners had little or no connecting to Al Quadea or any other terriost group in getmo. We have to keep in mind that detain prisoner might not be citizens of America but they are citizens of the world, and they should be given a chance to prove themselves innocent. I think a middle ground between the previous and the current adminstation should be found to effectivily and fairly deal with the threat of terriosm.
ReplyDeleteBud. To answer your question, legally Miranda rights are only provided to US citizens. In the past, any foreign agent suspected of committing acts against the US was not provided with any of these rights. I have no problem with providing an accused foreign terrorist with a certain set of defined rights. My issue with this policy is that by offering them specifically Miranda rights, we are implying that they are privileged to all the same rights as US citizens.
ReplyDeleteMy Response to This Guy:
ReplyDeleteThank you, your questions are perfect and the first one leads right into my next post. And to quickly answer your second question: yes all accused persons should be allowed to appeal their sentencing, once and only once to the closest court. These are the same rules that apply to inmates in federal prisons.
Trey Anastasio,
ReplyDeleteMany of the people at Getmo have not been convicted of having a connection with a terrorist group, but this is because many have yet to be tried. The court cases are slow enough as it is and changing policies with the new administration has done little to expedite the process. Keep in mind that it is hard to prove that someone is as terrorist when they are coming from a nation that has almost no police force, let alone advanced forensics teams. Physical evidence tying them to a terrorist group is near impossible to obtain so witnesses and direct intelligence is needed for a conviction, which takes much longer to obtain.