. -- hosting our program today is charles "cully" stimson. of defense on detainee issues worldwide. he has also served four years as an assistant to the u.s. attorney for the district of columbia. previous to that, he was a homicide prosecutor in maryland, and a domestic violence prosecutor in san diego. he served three active-duty tours in at the navy, and continues to serve as a judge advocate general reservist in the navy. please join me in welcoming my colleague, charles "cully" stimson. cully. [applause] >> thank you. welcome. this week i had the opportunity to speak to some distinguished citizens about u.s. detention policy. in that audience or several world war ii exploits -- in the audience were several world war ii veterans. during that war, we had over four hundred thousand not see pow's here in custody -- overpowers -- over 400,000 nazi pow's here in custody. no one would have thought of releasing them during a war. that is what we are doing today. i think we would all agree with that gentleman that we should not be rearming an ene

hosting a discussion this morning is cully stimson. mr.stimson is fellow understudies piteously neuropathic and military law, military commissions and detention policy. prior to joining heritage he served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs. he advises secretary detainee issues worldwide including of course guantÁnamo bay, iraq and afghanistan. he has also served four years and his assistant u.s. attorney for the district of columbia. previous to that he was a homicide prosecutor in maryland in a domestic violence prosecutor in san diego. he served three active-duty tours in the navy and continues to serve as a judge advocate general, reservist in the navy. he is currently commander and serves as a military judge. please join me in welcoming my colleague, cully stimson. [applause] >> thank you, john. welcome. this week i had the opportunity to speak to some distinguished seasoned citizen about u.s. detention policy. and in that audience were several world war ii vet. and during the question-and-answer period one o

here to talk about it is charles cully stimson.tern when he took office, and he wanted to close down gitmo, and, wanted to pass health care reform, and i guess he is so busy trying to pass health care reform gitmo remains open and we are hearing a deal is not near, there are no negotiations with the senate yet on where to try khalid sheikh mohammed and the other 9/11 defendants, and the question is can closing gitmo be done safely before congress passes a law defining the rights an privileges of the detainees, once on u.s. soil? >> julie, julie, it can be done, bus i think there are certain prerequisites. and, although it has been health care all the time, behind the scenes they've done a lot of work to triage and figure out who can stay and who can go and who should be tried and who should be detained indefinitely and that is important work that has been done and unless this define the rights of the detainees and have congress pass a law, defining those rights and authorizing preventive attention i don't think you are in a positio

please join me in welcoming my colleague, cully stimson. [applause] >> thank you, john. welcome.this week, i have the opportunity to speak to some distinguished the season and citizens about the u.s. detention policy and in that audience were two vets. during the question and answer time frame, one of these veterans noted that during world war ii we had over 1000 not see pow's here in custody in the united states -- nazi p.o.w.'s here in custody in the united states and nobody would have ever considered releasing them during war. that is exactly what we are doing today. i am sure a lot of people agree with that gentleman that we should not be rearming the enemy, committed an islamic jihadists, during wartime. of course, that is exactly what we did during the bush administration for a variety of reasons and exactly what the obama administration is intent on doing as well. those detainee's that people usually focus on are those that were at guantanamo. but this policy also exists -- existed in iraq, afghanistan and the nevertheless, people tend to focus on those at guantanamo. in a