Katie Couric's Notebook: Gitmo

By: Katie Couric
Topics: Katie's Notebook

Video:
Notebook: Guantanamo Bay

Hi, everyone.

Five years ago this week, the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba opened its doors to "illegal combatants." Then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld called it the "least worst place" to house prisoners from the war in Afghanistan. And since then, Gitmo has been a source of controversy.

Critics say most of the prisoners there are caught in a legal limbo, with the U.S. saying it can hold them indefinitely without bringing them to trial.

The other side of the argument: what other option is there? Does an enemy fighter deserve a jury of his peers? Or the right to a speedy trial?

President Bush has called the prisoners at Gitmo the "worst of the worst," including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of 9-11.

The president has said he hopes for the day when we can close down the prison. If that means finding a better way to deal with our worst enemies, we should all hope that day isn't too far away.

That's a page from my notebook.

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by January 15, 2007 6:03 PM EST: Gitmo is a hard problem, that we created.
Old world powers(Romans, French, Babylonians, ..etc.) would have had two solutions.
1. Kill them.
2. Torture them until they gave us every bit of information we wanted from them and then kill them.
We are trying to apply the rules of a convention that doesn't apply. We entered into the geneva convention with organized countries. These folks have no organized country.(that is why many people associate terrorist with being muslim as interchangable. It is not, but we can't call terrorists Canadians now can we?)
We are also trying to apply rules of law that govern our citizens with people who are not our citizens, and to which we either don't recognize their country with diplomatic relations or we have invaded their countries quite recently.; Reply to this comment


by cbelster January 13, 2007 4:56 AM EST: It appears to me that frontier warfare has been addressed with a frontier legal system. I do not presuppose to say that this is fair or just, only that it is.

Additionally, though I put great trust in our own legal system, it is an adversarial system of justice, and far from perfect. One is not necessarily awarded for the just outcome, only a better argued outcome. I will leave it up to you whether there is a statistically significant relationship between legal funding and legal results.

The question then is: does the advent of a lack in rules of warfare require a new legal system to address it?; Reply to this comment


by stevehal007 January 13, 2007 1:41 AM EST: Dear, dear, Katie~

This air of "justice" that you and Bob and the executives at CBS smother us with is a bit, well, phoney.

Why is it that you are so sympathetic to combatants who are captured in battle, presuming their innocence, and wishing for them to have the "rights" protected by the Constitution of this great country, as though they are citizens of this country? Interestingly, the Duke LaCrosse team members who were accused of rape were treated on your broadcast as the scum of the earth....turns out they were innocent, but you treated them like terrorists.

While the anti-American ACLU may be a group that you are obviously inclined to adore....you need to be prepared for what happens to this country when you, and your liberal friends win this public relations battle over fighting a politically correct war against terrorism...namely, future 9/11s, or, more likely, terrorist events far more devastating. Keep it up....those future, massive terrorist events will rest on your conscience, assuming you have one.

You say, regarding shutting down GITMO..."if that means finding a better way to deal with our worst enemies, we should all hope that day isn't too far away"....ok, fine, give us a viable alternative to dealing with "our worst enemies"....got an extra room in your million dollar home?

PS...so, very, very tired of watching your lack of "gravitas"!; Reply to this comment


by petersemkiw January 13, 2007 1:20 AM EST: Dear Katie, In the spirit of freedom of speech,I say: I know you deliver the news objectively without political bias,I know you do not care more about the terrorists at GITMO than you do about protecting the people of this country, I know you also appreciate the greatness of America and our military which fight to preserve our American rights,our democracy, and to preserve and protect us,the American people,and I know you are not pathetic...Quite the contrary! That is my opinion, and my freedom of speech!!!; Reply to this comment