Military Commissions at Guantanamo, Not Civilian Trials and "Gitmo North'

Press Release

U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following statement on Friday regarding military commissions for foreign national terrorists:

"The decision to bring the 9/11 plotters into our communities for a civilian trial was a horrible idea in the first place, and no one should be surprised by the growing public opposition. Our military commission system was created on a bipartisan basis for the specific purpose of trying foreign terrorists.

"When a foreign national terrorist is captured--in the United States like the Christmas bomber, or overseas--he should be sent to Guantanamo, detained there, interrogated there, and the case adjudicated there. They should be treated as military prisoners, not like U.S. citizens. The administration has argued that the secure detention facility at Guantanamo Bay serves as a recruiting tool for Al Qaeda and has instead proposed spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a long term detention facility in the United States, a "Gitmo North.' Under that logic, al Qaeda would undoubtedly use any long-term detention facility in the United States as a recruiting tool, and it makes little sense to waste the taxpayers' dollars simply to change the zip code for such a prison."

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