quote:It is starting to look like the president who campaigned on closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay may end up doing something wholly different: signing a law that would pave the way for terrorism suspects to be held indefinitely.
Administration officials are looking at the possibility at codifying detention without trial and are awaiting legislation that is supposed to come out of Congress early next year.
Analysts say two key events have conspired to force President Obama's hand on indefinite detention legislation. Last week, a New York jury nearly acquitted Ahmed Ghailani, a young Tanzanian who was charged with more than 280 counts of murder and conspiracy for his alleged role in the 1998 embassy bombings in Africa; and Republicans regained control of the House of Representatives in midterm elections.
Case Highlights Administration's Dilemma
Obama administration officials had thought the Ghailani case would be a slam-dunk. Four other men were convicted of the same crime in the same New York federal court back in 2002.
But in this case, after five days of deliberation the jury convicted Ghailani of a single charge of conspiracy.
"The jury came within one count of acquitting him entirely," says Benjamin Wittes, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. "And had that happened that would have put the government in an enormously difficult position because if you hold a trial and somebody is acquitted, it kind of violates our sense of what a trial is to say, well, we're going to hold him anyway."
Ghailani was never going to walk out of the courtroom a free man because the Obama Justice Department, from Attorney General Eric Holder on down, has made clear that if any high-profile terrorism suspects are acquitted, they will never go free. They would be held as enemy combatants instead.
Juan Zarate, a former deputy national security adviser in the Bush administration and now a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says that's a huge problem. When prosecutors can hold someone behind bars even without proving their case the criminal trial becomes a show trial.
herp derp, insert mangled pseudo ben franklin quote here
More at link, I suggest reading the whole thing.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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You know, I wasn't the slightest bit optimistic that Obama would put an end to the Bush era abuses, but it still boggles the mind how much he's continued down that path.
Posts: 2437 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Frankly this is so embarrassing, and probably my biggest frustration with this administration. I'm not a big fan of people making a big show of changing things up and then going hardcore in the other direction.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Blayne Bradley
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posted
I can only put this as proof that there's a masionic conspiracy.
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well cheer up chums, this isn't so bad! after all, he did already claim the power to do this and uh
wait that's not better
ok, ok, well, the primary legal lawyers working for bush set up a scheme in which they could make warrantless detention and cold storage of human beings untamperable by the judicial branch hypothetically so
um, wait, let me start over
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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I complained about all this stuff under Bush, voted to throw the bums out, even donated money to that cause and it turns out none of that mattered. Sadly, I did actually believe when I voted that I was voting for freedom, for less torture, for gay rights, etc. Hard to believe in democracy anymore. How do I find a job in Canada?
Posts: 2223 | Registered: Mar 2008
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Blayne Bradley
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You'ld be asked to ask CT about that
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Everyone just loves to make up words and say that ben franklin said them, is all. like "They who would give up essential liberties for temporary securities deserve neither security nor liberty" or one of the 10 different variations or so of that quote.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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