Source:
Raw StoryA top Democratic senator is accusing the Attorney General of trying "to create an election-year security issue where there isn’t one."
Congress, and not judges, should decide how to give Guantanamo Bay detainees their day in court, the attorney general said Monday in calling for new laws governing how foreign terror suspects seek their release.
It's doubtful, however, that Congress will approve the legal measures Attorney General Michael Mukasey wants before the end of the election-season year.
A federal court in Washington is currently working on rules for judicial hearings for about 200 suspected al-Qaida and Taliban foot soldiers who charge they're being illegally held at the prison at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. A Supreme Court ruling last month gave the detainees the right to challenge their capture in U.S. civilian courts.
Read more:
http://rawstory.com//news/2008/Feingold_Mukasey_trying_to_create_electionyear_0721.html
In a statement sent to RAW STORY, Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) complains that "The Attorney General’s comments today appeared to be an attempt to create an election-year security issue where there isn’t one."
"Our federal courts are capable of handling these cases, and no dangerous detainees held at Guantanamo will be released anytime soon," Feingold's statement continued. "By repeatedly mishandling these cases, the administration has delayed justice from being served. If congressional action is needed to clean up the mess the administration created at Guantanamo, it should be taken alongside a new administration that doesn’t have such contempt for the rule of law."