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Prez pledges trials for Gitmo suspects


BY JAMES GORDON MEEK
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON - President Bush said yesterday for the first time that terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay who are not shipped home will get their day in court.
"Eventually, these people will have trials and they will have counsel and they will be represented in a court of law," Bush said at the White House.

"I say 'these people' - those who are not sent back to their mother countries," Bush added.

Earlier this month, the President said Gitmo detainees "ought to be tried in courts here," and that his administration eagerly awaited a Supreme Court ruling about prosecuting them before military tribunals.

But experts were stunned that Bush promised that all 450 held at Camp Delta - including many Al Qaeda and Taliban suspects jailed without charges for four years - will get a chance to defend themselves in court.

Officials have long said that only about two dozen, or 75 at most, would ever face justice from military judges. So far, no prisoner has been fully tried.

"It certainly would be a switch if, after all the time that has elapsed, they wound up trying a large proportion of the detainees," said Eugene Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice.

Also yesterday, Afghanistan announced that all 75 Afghans at Gitmo will soon be returned home or released.

Originally published on June 15, 2006



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