Comments on: Coast Guard Academy Law Prof. Proposes Hybrid Court for Dealing With Guantanamo Detainees http://www.heatherrobinson.net/blog/2010/01/26/new-hybrid-court-proposal-for-dealing-with-guantanamo-detainees/ Journalist - Middle East Commentator Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:11:06 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.3 By: Erik B. http://www.heatherrobinson.net/blog/2010/01/26/new-hybrid-court-proposal-for-dealing-with-guantanamo-detainees/#comment-23485 Erik B. Sat, 30 Jan 2010 04:35:28 +0000 http://www.heatherrobinson.net/blog/2010/01/26/new-hybrid-court-proposal-for-dealing-with-guantanamo-detainees/#comment-23485 <b>Good news</b> Many Manhattan activists, politicians and President Obama himself must be reading your blog. The Obama administration has apparently now decided to move the trial to somewhere else other than Manhattan based on some of the grassroots concerns (from the NYT): <i>The Obama administration on Friday gave up on its plan to try the Sept. 11 plotters in Lower Manhattan, bowing to almost unanimous pressure from New York officials and business leaders to move the terrorism trial elsewhere. “I think I can acknowledge the obvious,” an administration official said. “We’re considering other options.” The reversal on whether to try the alleged 9/11 terrorists blocks from the former World Trade Center site seemed to come suddenly this week, <b>after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg abandoned his strong support for the plan and said the cost and disruption would be too great.</b> … Soon, though, New York real estate executives were raising concerns with the Obama administration, according to Mr. Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York. Mr. Spinola said he had received calls and e-mail messages from the board’s members. Residential <b>real estate brokers were “going berserk,” as he put it, worried that they would no longer be able to sell apartments downtown. </b></i> <b>Update</b> Now it appears that the small town of Newburgh, NY population of 28,259 is actively seeking host the trial: <i> <b>NEWBURGH, N.Y.</b> The mayor of a small upstate New York city says his community would be the perfect site for the Sept. 11 terrorist trial, if officials decide to move it out of Manhattan. Mayor Nicholas Valentine said Friday that Newburgh, a small, shopworn city about 60 miles up the Hudson River from the city, is the ideal place to try professed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (HAH'-leed shayk moh-HAH'-med) and four alleged accomplices. Valentine says the city has a new state-of-the art courthouse than can easily be secured and is less than a 90-minute commute from Manhattan. Valentine thinks Newburgh would benefit from the international attention, as well as the hordes of lawyers and reporters attending the trial. He'd also like to see a federal aid package if his city hosts the trial. </i> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/29/AR2010012902592.html Is this the win-win that everyone has been seeking? Good news

Many Manhattan activists, politicians and President Obama himself must be reading your blog.

The Obama administration has apparently now decided to move the trial to somewhere else other than Manhattan based on some of the grassroots concerns (from the NYT):

The Obama administration on Friday gave up on its plan to try the Sept. 11 plotters in Lower Manhattan, bowing to almost unanimous pressure from New York officials and business leaders to move the terrorism trial elsewhere.

“I think I can acknowledge the obvious,” an administration official said. “We’re considering other options.”

The reversal on whether to try the alleged 9/11 terrorists blocks from the former World Trade Center site seemed to come suddenly this week, after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg abandoned his strong support for the plan and said the cost and disruption would be too great.
…
Soon, though, New York real estate executives were raising concerns with the Obama administration, according to Mr. Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York.

Mr. Spinola said he had received calls and e-mail messages from the board’s members. Residential real estate brokers were “going berserk,” as he put it, worried that they would no longer be able to sell apartments downtown.

Update

Now it appears that the small town of Newburgh, NY population of 28,259 is actively seeking host the trial:

NEWBURGH, N.Y. The mayor of a small upstate New York city says his community would be the perfect site for the Sept. 11 terrorist trial, if officials decide to move it out of Manhattan.

Mayor Nicholas Valentine said Friday that Newburgh, a small, shopworn city about 60 miles up the Hudson River from the city, is the ideal place to try professed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (HAH’-leed shayk moh-HAH’-med) and four alleged accomplices.

Valentine says the city has a new state-of-the art courthouse than can easily be secured and is less than a 90-minute commute from Manhattan.

Valentine thinks Newburgh would benefit from the international attention, as well as the hordes of lawyers and reporters attending the trial. He’d also like to see a federal aid package if his city hosts the trial.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/29/AR2010012902592.html

Is this the win-win that everyone has been seeking?

]]> By: Erik B. http://www.heatherrobinson.net/blog/2010/01/26/new-hybrid-court-proposal-for-dealing-with-guantanamo-detainees/#comment-23477 Erik B. Thu, 28 Jan 2010 07:43:48 +0000 http://www.heatherrobinson.net/blog/2010/01/26/new-hybrid-court-proposal-for-dealing-with-guantanamo-detainees/#comment-23477 <i>National Review online published a blog post by U.S. Coast Guard Academy Professor of Law Glenn Sulmasy . . . arguing for the creation of a court system specifically geared towards trying those accused of attacking Americans and U.S. interests.</i> Sounds like a good idea. The amount of due process given to the defendant detainees need not be connected to the location in which they are tried. The US could decide to give additional due process rights while trying them in Guantanamo Bay or anywhere else for that matter. With the procedural issues aside, NYC Mayor Bloomberg estimates that the additional security costs to hold the trial in NYC would cost $200,000,000 per year. Here is an opportunity for Obama to reduce the deficit which has accumulated over the last 20 years. Bloomberg had previously strongly supported trying the detainees in NYC stating <i>”[i]t is fitting that 9/11 suspects face justice near the World Trade Center site, where so many New Yorkers were murdered.”</i> However, Bloomberg has recently changed his mind on the issue and now opposes hosting the trial in NYC as have many local groups in NYC: <i><b>The Obama administration on Wednesday lost its most prominent backer of the plan to try the self-described mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks in Lower Manhattan</b> when Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said the trial should not be held in New York City. The mayor’s reversal was a political blow to the White House’s efforts to resolve a landmark terror case a few blocks from where Al Qaeda hijackers rammed planes into the World Trade Center, a trial that the president saw as an important demonstration of American justice. Mr. Bloomberg said that a more secure location, like a military base, would be less disruptive and less costly. His remarks echoed growing opposition from Wall Street executives, the real estate industry and neighborhood groups, who have questioned the burdens that such a trial would bring to a heavily trafficked area of the city. “It’s going to cost an awful lot of money and disturb an awful lot of people,” Mr. Bloomberg said at a news conference in Brooklyn. “My hope is that the attorney general and the president decide to change their mind.“</i> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/28/nyregion/28bloomberg.html Perhaps the Justice Department should take Glenn Sulmasy’s advice and create a few unique rules for the trial of the detainees to create something between a military tribunal and a civilian criminal court and hold the trials in Guantanamo Bay or somewhere else outside the US. Another improvement would be to simply hold the trials inside the US but outside of NYC, an option which Bloomberg suggested. National Review online published a blog post by U.S. Coast Guard Academy Professor of Law Glenn Sulmasy . . . arguing for the creation of a court system specifically geared towards trying those accused of attacking Americans and U.S. interests.

Sounds like a good idea.

The amount of due process given to the defendant detainees need not be connected to the location in which they are tried.

The US could decide to give additional due process rights while trying them in Guantanamo Bay or anywhere else for that matter.

With the procedural issues aside, NYC Mayor Bloomberg estimates that the additional security costs to hold the trial in NYC would cost $200,000,000 per year. Here is an opportunity for Obama to reduce the deficit which has accumulated over the last 20 years.

Bloomberg had previously strongly supported trying the detainees in NYC stating ”[i]t is fitting that 9/11 suspects face justice near the World Trade Center site, where so many New Yorkers were murdered.”

However, Bloomberg has recently changed his mind on the issue and now opposes hosting the trial in NYC as have many local groups in NYC:

The Obama administration on Wednesday lost its most prominent backer of the plan to try the self-described mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks in Lower Manhattan when Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said the trial should not be held in New York City.

The mayor’s reversal was a political blow to the White House’s efforts to resolve a landmark terror case a few blocks from where Al Qaeda hijackers rammed planes into the World Trade Center, a trial that the president saw as an important demonstration of American justice.

Mr. Bloomberg said that a more secure location, like a military base, would be less disruptive and less costly.

His remarks echoed growing opposition from Wall Street executives, the real estate industry and neighborhood groups, who have questioned the burdens that such a trial would bring to a heavily trafficked area of the city.

“It’s going to cost an awful lot of money and disturb an awful lot of people,” Mr. Bloomberg said at a news conference in Brooklyn. “My hope is that the attorney general and the president decide to change their mind.“

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/28/nyregion/28bloomberg.html

Perhaps the Justice Department should take Glenn Sulmasy’s advice and create a few unique rules for the trial of the detainees to create something between a military tribunal and a civilian criminal court and hold the trials in Guantanamo Bay or somewhere else outside the US.

Another improvement would be to simply hold the trials inside the US but outside of NYC, an option which Bloomberg suggested.

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