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Miller continues to oppose Gitmo proposal
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By MLADEN RUDMAN
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Northwest Florida Daily News, May 10th, 2007
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House Democrats continue to push for closing the detainment camp at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Congressman Jeff Miller continues to oppose the idea.
Congressman Neil Abercrombie, D-Honolulu, chairman of the House’s Air-Land Forces subcommittee, co-sponsored legislation earlier this week to shutter the Gitmo camp.
Miller’s concerns about the bill are several, including the possibility some people held at Gitmo — they’re assumed to be terrorists by the Bush administration — would be shipped to the brig at Naval Air Station Pensacola.
The proposed Gitmo camp closure bill was addressed Wednesday during a House Armed Services Committee mark-up session for the Fiscal Year 2008 National Defense Authorization Act. Miller planned to introduce an amendment that prohibits closing the camp or transferring its occupants to America.
“Those who condone moving the detainees to the United States must realize the detainees would then immediately be granted new rights — the rights of an American citizen,” Miller said in a statement.
Abercrombie’s spokesman Dave Helfert said the congressman sees the Gitmo camp as a matter of right or wrong. It’s wrong to him to keep the camp open because it stains America’s reputation as a mighty defender of human rights, he said.
“It has become a symbol … to the rest of the world about the U.S.’ treatment of people,” Helfert added. “It does us tremendous harm in that sense.”
He added that due process, which has been denied to detainees, is an internationally recognized principle. For Abercrombie, the goal is to get detainees through a transparent legal process quickly, with the innocent regaining freedom and the guilty serving time after proper trials.
Helfert said Abercrombie’s bill doesn’t prescribe where displaced detainees would be held if Gitmo closes. He noted that there are civilian and military facilities around the country that could be used.
Miller, R-Chumuckla, dismissed the idea that any country has the right to question America’s dedication to protecting personal liberties.
“Countries that do not grant equal rights to women, stifle the press, imprison dissenters and condone racism and religious discrimination have no business criticizing our detention facility,” he said.
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