 | Both the Bambi administration and the NYT are coming their senses, ever so slowly, as they realize, surprise, surprise, that the world is a dangerous place and that the detainees are dangerous people. Better late than never, though it's going to cause much panic in mid-town Manhattan ... |
The Obama administration is moving toward reviving the military commission system for prosecuting Guantanamo detainees, which was a target of critics during the Bush administration, including Mr. Obama himself.
Officials said the first public moves could come as soon as next week, perhaps in filings to military judges at the United States naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, outlining an administration plan to amend the Bush administration's system to provide more legal protections for terrorism suspects.
Continuing the military commissions in any form would probably prompt sharp criticism from human rights groups as well as some of Mr. Obama's political allies because the troubled system became an emblem of the effort to use Guantanamo to avoid the American legal system.
| In other words, the usual suspects will whine and carp. Barack might wish to call George in Texas to get some pointers in how to ignore these people ... |
Officials who work on the Guantanamo issue say administration lawyers have become concerned that they would face significant obstacles to trying some terrorism suspects in federal courts. Judges might make it difficult to prosecute detainees who were subjected to brutal treatment or for prosecutors to use hearsay evidence gathered by intelligence agencies.
| It wouldn't be difficult at all if the USSC had minded its place. We had a system and set of rules in place, painfully worked out between the Congress and President Bush. The USSC only had to recognize that the courts had no role in foreign affairs and no role in fighting terrorism abroad. |
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