A WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE…. Take a wild guess who said this.
“Now, I know that some of these guys [at Guantanamo] are terrible, terrible killers and the worst kind of scum of humanity. But, one, they deserve to have some adjudication of their cases. And there’s a fear that if you release them that they’ll go back and fight again against us. And that may have already happened. But balance that against what it’s doing to our reputation throughout the world and whether it’s enhancing recruiting for people to join al Qaeda and other organizations and want to do bad things to the United States of America.
“I think, on balance, the argument has got to be — the weight of evidence has got to be that we’ve got to adjudicate these people’s cases, and that means that if it means releasing some of them, you’ll have to release them.
“Look, even Adolf Eichmann got a trial.”
The position here is unequivocal. Gitmo detainees deserve trials, and the detention facility itself has become an embarrassment that has helped al Qaeda.
If we try the detainees in court, this person added, and the evidence isn’t there to convict, the U.S. should simply release them, regardless of the consequences.
So, who said this?
It was Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on June 19, 2005.
Now try to imagine what the fury would be like if President Obama, or really any Democratic official, repeated those identical words on national television today.
