Claim: Gitmo closure would aid terrorists

WASHINGTON, June 25 (UPI) -- Closing the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay would help terror suspects escape justice, a U.S. presidential candidate said.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives and a conservative candidate for the Republican Party's 2008 presidential nomination, warned Friday that closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay and transferring its inmates into the United States would have a serious impact on the broader U.S. detainee policy, which was defined last year in the Military Commissions Act.

"Once these detainees are brought onto U.S. soil, the detainees may acquire minimal rights under the Constitution, in particular, the right to habeas corpus. This change in status will inevitably spawn a completely new round of litigation," Hunter said in a statement.

"While I believe the Combatant Status Review Tribunals that all detainees at Guantanamo receive satisfy those rights, it would take years of further litigation to finally reach that result," the congressman said. "Thus, the military commission process would be stalled for the foreseeable future, and none of the detainees at Guantanamo would be brought to justice."

"Some would like this result; they would prefer to see terrorists tried under our federal criminal justice system. This is a false choice," Hunter said.

"We cannot try terrorists for war crimes if it requires our soldiers to read terrorists Miranda rights or take a battalion of lawyers onto the battlefield," he said. "Military commissions are crucial because they are crafted for the conduct of war by providing procedures flexible enough to account for the constraints and conditions of the battlefield."

Congressional conservatives are currently fighting efforts by human rights groups to close the Guantanamo holding facility.