Legal Commentary

Obama Clarifies Position on Guantanamo Trials

By Jeralyn

It may have been too good to be true. Earlier today the news reported that Obama planned to close Guantanamo and try the detainees facing criminal charges in U.S. criminal courts or courts using the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Or, in a curious statement, in some kind of new court.

Not so fast. After the reports, Obama released a statement denying he was considering a new kind of court for the detainees, but that also said:

"....There is absolutely no truth to reports that a decision has been made about how and where to try the detainees, and there is no process in place to make that decision until his national security and legal teams are assembled," said Denis McDonough, a senior foreign policy adviser for the transition team, in a statement.

So, the good news is Obama's not planning on creating a new kind of court. The hiccup is he is not prepared to say today "how and where" the detainees will be tried. [More..]

Anthony Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU responds:

“Any effort by President-elect Obama's transition team and their advisors to develop new procedures to try the Guantánamo detainees is a distraction and a doomed effort. We have the best systems of justice in the world – either through the Uniform Code of Military Justice or through our criminal court system. President Bush made the terrible mistake of believing he could make up a new system of justice for terrorism cases and that experiment failed miserably.

Any attempt to secure convictions by diluting basic due process safeguards will have lasting implications that are unlikely to be confined to Guantánamo. If the Bush administration violated prisoners’ rights by torturing them in order to get a confession, no new law or legal system will fix that taint. If the only evidence against a Guantánamo detainee was obtained through torture, then there is no reliable evidence that can be used in an American court. A new legal system designed to get around that unfortunate legacy is destined for years of legal challenges by advocates who rightly believe that, under our system of justice, no one's rights are safe unless everyone's rights are protected.”

There's only one right answer here. Close Guantanamo on day 1 and try the detainees either in U.S. criminal courts or military courts operating under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on November 10, 2008 (boomark / email).