So what is keeping Bush from trying those he is now holding? Clinton

[oncall247]

tried, convicted, and imprisoned the culprits from the first WTC bombing using laws and proceedures now on the books. So why does Bush keep saying that "If we get a decent piece of legislation from the Congress, we can try the alleged terrorists we are now holding?"

[MadMaddie]

1. You know why because they have many of the wrong people....

they have no evidence and they are buying time....the reason they want to keep the evidence secret is so they can convict innocent men....and no one would be the wiser....

[tk2kewl]

2. In a real trial you need real evidence...

that would be turned over to the defense and ultimately made public. Additionally, the interrogation methods used on the defendants would absolutely be used as evidence by the defense to discredit any information obtained through coercion.
I'd say these are the two big problems the bushinistas are facing in terms of trying these guys in a real court.

[Old and In the Way]

3. The fact that the truth would come out.

That most of these people are merely pawns in a Constitutional crisis of this administration's making. The key point here is that Bush thinks he alone has the authority to suspend Habeus corpus. If these suspects get to tell their story in a court of law, I think we'll be shocked to see how little these people collectively had of any knowledge about Al Qaeda. I'm betting they were mainly ignorant militiamen who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[oncall247]

5. Why isn't the media covering this side of the story. Bush is trying to

make people believe that Congress is holding up the trials and that he needs new laws to try these alleged terrorists. No one in the media is challenging this and neither is anyone of the Democrats.

[Old and In the Way]

4. Welcome aboard...great 1st question. K/R

[calimary]

6. Agreed. Welcome to DU!

And besides, if everything he's doing is on the up-n-up, why is he so worried about changing the laws retroactively? As his own ex-attorney general, john ashcroft, would say - "if you've done nothig wrong, then you have nothing to worry about," DO YOU, george?!