Amnesty International

(Washington, DC) – Larry Cox, Amnesty International USA’s executive director, issued the following statement in response to today’s news reports that the Department of Defense is planning to build a “legal compound” at the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba:“Once again, the Defense Department seems to be operating in – even constructing – its own universe. The new rules for the proposed military commissions under the Military Commissions Act(MCA) have not been made public, and not a single charge has been filed under the new system. And yet the Pentagon wants to build a permanent homage to its failed experiment in second class justice.“It is absolutely nonsensical that the U.S. government is proposing to spend 125 million American taxpayers’ dollars to build commission rooms and supporting structures, when there’s a chance that the U.S. courts may strike down the new commissions. Rather than wasting tons of money creating edifices that may prove to be a white elephant, the U.S. government should use the sophisticated and fully adequate facilities already available to it to try terrorism suspects – federal courts.”