Matt Yglesias

Michael Goldfarb’s Strange Complacency About Nazis

I think he may want to think harder about this:

Here’s a clip of Rep. Pete Hoekstra at the presser this morning explaining to a particularly thick reporter why the threat posed by al Qaeda detainees is different, and far more serious, that that posed by German prisoners of war. As Hoekstra explains, the Germans didn’t kill three thousand American civilians as they went to work.

The difference between al-Qaeda and the Nazis is that Nazis didn’t kill civilians? Really?

This is via Conor Friedersdorf.

Meanwhile, the underlying assumption that the United States of America is incapable of building a secure prison physically located on the North American continent is really strange. If there’s anything we know how to do in the USA it’s lock people up. Everybody knows that.

Gitmo and NIMBY

One piece of soggy toilet paper the right is now throwing up against the wall is the idea that it’s unsafe to imprison suspected terrorists in prisons located on the North American continent rather than in a facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. This is pretty absurd on its face—if there’s one thing our government does a lot of it’s build prisons and hold people there—but it’s worth observing the element of bad faith here as well. The Gitmo location was, recall, never initially motivated by considerations related to the physical security of the space.

Rather, the appeal of the location was its ambiguous legal status. Guantanamo Bay is in Cuba, not the United States of America. But since the Cuban Revolution of 1958, we’ve had no Status of Forces Agreement with Cuba authorizing the presence of an American military base. Consequently, argued the Bush administration, neither Cuban nor American law applied there. This was somewhat daft if you ask me, albeit clever, but whatever you think of the merits of the argument that is why the prisoners were sent there. The Bush team never felt it was unsafe to send prisoners to Fort Leavenworth or to the supermax prison in Colorado, they just didn’t want to be in a position where they had to follow the law.

What Might Have Been

Too bad this guy’s not President:

I was intrigued that House conservatives were using Romney as a stimulus spokesperson last week. I guess we’ll have the Mittster to kick around for a while yet.

Executive Orders

Barack Obama signed some executive orders today, and they sure are a sight for sore eyes. One orders a comprehensive review of detention policies with the following mission:

The mission of the Special Task Force shall be to conduct a comprehensive review of the lawful options available to the Federal Government with respect to the apprehension, detention, trial, transfer, release, or other disposition of individuals captured or apprehended in connection with armed conflicts and counterterrorism operations, and to identify such options as are consistent with the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice.

Another orders the development of a plan to close Guantanamo Bay, and a final one deals with the special case of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri:

I have today signed an Executive Order entitled Review and Disposition of Individuals Detained at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base and Closure of Detention Facilities (”Review and Disposition Order”), which mandates a review, coordinated by the Attorney General, of the status of all individuals that the Department of Defense is currently detaining at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base, in order to effect their prompt and appropriate disposition.

For more than 5 years, the Department of Defense has detained Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri as an enemy combatant in facilities within the United States. Al-Marri is the only individual the Department of Defense is currently holding as an enemy combatant within the United States.

Because he is not held at Guantánamo Bay, al-Marri is not covered by the review mandated in the Review and Disposition Order. Yet it is equally in the interests of the United States that the executive branch undertake a prompt and thorough review of the factual and legal basis for al-Marri’s continued detention, and identify and thoroughly evaluate alternative dispositions.

We’re back on track to the rule of law.