YaHooka Forums - View Single Post - Obama backs down; Continues military tribunals for Gitmo detainees.

Maturin · 05-15-2009, 04:51 PM

Change we can believe in.

From the WaPo

Quote:

Military Tribunals Will Resume, Obama Says

President Obama said today he will revive military commissions but with greater legal safeguards for defendants to try some terrorist suspects held at the military base in Cuba.

The decision, which follows an intense internal debate, represents something of a reversal by the president who said during the campaign that military courts martial or the federal courts offered a better route to successful prosecution because he said military commissions had been an "enormous failure."

In recent weeks, however, the administration appears to have bowed to fears articulated by the Pentagon that bringing some detainees before regular courts presented enormous legal hurdles and could risk acquittals.

"Military commissions have a long tradition in the United States," said Obama in a statement. "They are appropriate for trying enemies who violate the laws of war, provided that they are properly structured and administered."

The administration will seek a second continuance of proceedings at Guantanamo Bay to finalize reforms to the military commissions system, including a ban on the use of evidence obtained from coercive interrogations, limits on the use of hearsay, more latitude for detainees in selecting attorney, and protections for defendants who refuse to testify, Obama said.

Despite these changes, the decision will dismay civil liberties and human rights groups who had assumed that the administration had abandoned commissions when it sought a first suspension of proceedings immediately after Obama came into office.

"It is troubling that President Obama has apparently chosen to revive the flawed military commissions he rightly denounced during his campaign," said Virginia Sloan, president of the Constitution Project, a Washington think-tank.. "Military commissions are designed to provide lesser due process protections for terrorism suspects than our federal courts do. Throughout our nation's history, those courts have proven their ability to handle the most difficult and sensitive cases. President Obama should have demonstrated a return to the rule of law by ending the tainted military commission proceedings."
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Obama noted that he has supported draft legislation on military commission in 2006 but rejected the final version supported by the Bush administration because "it failed to establish a legitimate legal framework and undermined our capability to ensure swift and certain justice against those detainees that we were holding at the time."

cont.