May 22, 2009 -- There is a "long-term detention policy" inter-agency panel (led by the
Justice Department) that has a report due this summer that will outline the
alternatives for justifying Obama's new "Prolonged Detention" policy -- comparing the idea of claiming the right to hold someone (called a
combatant by some U.S. employees) without charges or lawyer (based on
Bush's "they're forever war combatants") to the Obama "legal structure"
concept of a special secret "forever detention" court.
Such a "forever detention" court would be based on the current secret court that violates privacy for wiretaps -- the FISA (United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance) Court -- which tells citizens affected nothing about what it has done or why. Such a court would need to be created by new legislation.
But the Supreme Court has already ruled
that detainees are entitled to a judicial review of their detention,
and is unlikely to approve either -- I hope. The concept is that there
is a "forever, never-ending" war against al-Qaeda and other terrorists
who are without actual links to any sovereign state, making those
claimed to be "combatants" in this "war" that is indefinite much more
likely to suffer from problems of mistaken identity than is the case in
traditional warfare because they have no uniforms. These folks who are
our allies' citizens are held held forever by the USA despite the fact
those allies do not see the conflict as "war" -- they see it as a police
action and see terrorism as exclusively a criminal matter. Should be an
interesting Court case.
Meanwhile it is interesting that Obama now tries to continue Bush's forever detention without charge policy via an institutionalize "Star Chambers."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/21/AR2009052104045.html
Obama Endorses Indefinite Detention Without Trial for Some
By Peter Finn Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, May 22, 2009
President Obama acknowledged publicly for the first time yesterday that some detainees at Guantanamo Bay may have to be held without trial indefinitely, siding with conservative national security advocates on one of the most contentious issues raised by the closing of the military prison in Cuba.
"We are going to exhaust every avenue that we have to prosecute those at Guantanamo who pose a danger to our country," Obama said. "But even when this process is complete, there may be a number of people who cannot be prosecuted for past crimes, but who nonetheless pose a threat to the security of the United States."
Some human rights advocates criticized Obama for adopting the idea that some detainees are not entitled to a trial. Others said the president was boxed in by cases inherited from the Bush administration in which possible prosecution had been irretrievably compromised by coercive interrogation.
The president stopped short of saying he would institutionalize indefinite detention for future captives.<snip>
***
William Chirolas brings 40 years of real-world business experience in local, state, national, and international tax, pensions, and finance to the world of blogging. A graduate of MIT, he calls the Boston area home, except when visiting kids and grandkids.
