Charles Skelton: “The history of tribunals goes back to during and after the Second World War: The German saboteurs who were captured at…”

“The history of tribunals goes back to during and after the Second World War: The German saboteurs who were captured at Ponte Verde, Florida, and Long Island were tried before a tribunal; the Japanese leaders who carried out such inhumane treatment toward the American soldiers and prisoners of war, among them General Yamashita and General Tojo; and, of course, the Nuremberg trials held in Nuremberg, Germany, after the war of the Nazis who perpetrated those various crimes. Now, here we are trying to establish a tribunal or a commission, which we should do and need to do. The Supreme Court, as a result of the Hamdan decision, said that we in Congress need to do it as opposed to an Executive Order. But what we needed to do was to be tough on terrorists. And being a former prosecuting attorney and knowing that the specter that hangs over every prosecutor's head is that a hard-won victory in court will be overturned by an appellate court or by a Supreme Court, we should be tough on the terrorists; not just tough on them with the law but tough on them with certainty, not giving the opportunity through legislation for the overturning of a conviction.”