GOP Detainee Policy?

Republican Rep. Buck McKeon, who will chair the House Armed Services Committee in the new Congress gave a speech today at the Foreign Policy Initiative that touched on, among other things, detainee policy. According to the Weekly Standard, he said the following:

Advocates for reducing the size of the military view the global security environment through the lens of what they hope it to be and fail to see it for what it really is. As the recent air cargo plot and the Christmas Day terrorist attack reminded us, al Qaeda and its affiliates continue to threaten the homeland. Arguably the greatest example of failed leadership in national security is the President’s mishandling of the war on terror and the Guantanamo detainees.

The Nigerian who attacked a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day trained in Yemen in an organization known as al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. One of the spiritual leaders of AQAP, we know now, is an American-born cleric who radicalized Major Hasan, the U.S. Army psychiatrist who killed 13 at Ft. Hood. Now this organization, with ties to the Ft. Hood massacre, which planned and organized the Christmas Day attack and the recent air cargo plot, has in its leadership a former Guantanamo detainee. You would think this would make the President reevaluate his Guantanamo policy; that the President would see the perils of closing Guantanamo and the risk of returning detainees to countries already riddled with ungoverned spaces and al Qaeda cells. The simple truth is that relaxing our Guantanamo policy puts Americans at risk. I believe America is the target of militant radicalism, not its source. I believe America is a force for peace in the world, not a cause of strife. And I believe we have a responsibility to defeat our enemies wherever they are, not “treat and release” them as if they were run of the mill domestic criminals. My position is simple: No more mirandizing terrorists. No more trials in downtown Manhattan. No more terrorist transfers to Yemen. The American people need a new terrorist detainee policy.

Later in the speech, McKeon added the following:

We will also focus on detainee policy. The days of U.S. courts making policy through case law must come to an end. Armed Services Committee Members will work to craft a legislative framework for terrorist detention that protects the homeland, respects the rule of law, and upholds our high ideals. We need to keep terrorists off of our soil, not invite them here and pay for their legal representation. We need to reaffirm—in statute—the authorization to use military force of 2001. Our forces in Afghanistan and around the world do not doubt that we continue to be at war with al Qaeda and its affiliated networks. They put their lives at risk every day. Therefore, Congress should ensure no court in the land questions the legal authority for our forces to prosecute this war. Make no mistake: the Armed Services Committee will conduct thorough oversight of this Administration’s detainee policies and work to legislate a framework that is guided by the law of armed conflict – not the criminal justice system.

I disagree with McKeon's tone almost completely here, and a lot of his allegations against the administration are the usual bunk. But on a substantive policy level, his speech is a mixed bag and there is a fair bit of common ground. I will outline both my objections to his speech and the common ground in a post later tonight.