Sen. Cornyn Statement On District Court Decision Regarding Bagram Detainees

Statement

Sen. Cornyn Statement On District Court Decision Regarding Bagram Detainees

Urges President Obama to appeal decision

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released the following statement expressing his deep concern about the D.C. District Court's ruling that detainees at the U.S. Bagram Air Base had the same legal rights as those held at Guantanamo Bay.

"If upheld, yesterday's decision will place American soldiers on the battlefield in greater danger. The notion that foreign enemy combatants detained by the U.S. military in a theater of war halfway around the world should have access to our civilian courts is deeply unsettling. Yet the district court's ruling was a foreseeable consequence of the Supreme Court's fatally flawed decision in Boumediene, which gave habeas corpus rights to terrorists held at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Station.

"The burdens this court decision places on our military are intolerable. A civilian judge's micromanagement of field commander determinations made in a far-away war zone can only weaken and endanger America's armed forces—and threaten the safety of Americans here at home. As Commander in Chief, President Obama is responsible for the safety and welfare of U.S. troops. I urge the President to appeal this dangerous decision.

"This latest ruling underscores the perils of unelected judges second-guessing America's national security policy. America remains at war with the groups that perpetrated 9/11, under a military force authorization approved by Congress one week after that fateful day. Yet our civilian courts continue to treat this war like a police action, and the enemy like common criminals. I fear that we will soon come to regret this unprecedented judicial intrusion into battlefield decisions made by the Commander in Chief and his troops."

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