McConnell is weighing in so as to keep this trial out of his home state of Kentucky. Last night Bowling Green town leaders were to vote on whether they wanted the trial or not.
However, the more I think about this, I believe the public has a right to know how these Iraqis came to be living in small town America through the refugee program. If they are shuffled off to Guantanamo Bay, you will never hear another word about them.
I don’t know how they will get a jury of their peers though—put a bunch of fellow Iraqi refugees on the jury? Come to think of it, let’s televise it too, just like the Casey Anthony trial and maybe the public would get a better understanding of the flaws in our LEGAL immigration programs.
From the Bowling Green Daily News:
U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell’s office said today the Senate minority leader plans to send a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder asking Holder to reconsider his decision to hold civilian trials for two Iraqi refugees arrested on terrorism charges in Bowling Green in May.
Waad Ramadan Alwan, 30, and Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, 23, were arrested May 25 in Bowling Green. A federal grand jury returned a 23-count indictment against the men May 26. Both mean entered the country legally as Iraqi refugees, receiving publicly funded housing assistance and health care.
“In the War on Terror, our government must place a higher priority on gathering intelligence and removing foreign fighters from the battlefield than on bringing a civilian prosecution,” McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said in a copy of the letter provided to the Daily News. “By doing so, we can maintain pressure on the higher echelons of Al Qaeda and its affiliates.”
McConnell also commended law enforcement for their work on the case.
“But our priority with enemy combatants like these should be to capture, interrogate, and detain them – indefinitely, if need be,” McConnell said in the letter. “If, after these priorities are achieved, we determine they should be tried for violating the laws of war, we should use our military commission system to do so. Our civilian criminal justice system simply is not intended for the purposes.”
McConnell requested that Holder provide information related to the decision to hold the trial in Bowling Green.
About ten days ago we reported that Kentucky’s other Senator, Rand Paul, has called for a hearing on July 13th in Washington, here.
Senator McConnell —no help with refugee problem in the past!
I have no proof, but I’ll bet Senator McConnell has helped for years to promote refugee resettlement in Kentucky to supply big meat companies with cheap labor. In 2009, a very frustrated Kentucky woman, concerned about the terrible living conditions of Burmese refugees in Bowling Green attempted to get McConnell’s attention on their plight and got no where. See one of many posts we did on the alleged abuse of refugees in Bowling Green.