WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama’s advisers are quietly crafting a proposal to ship dozens, if not hundreds, of imprisoned terrorism suspects to the United States to face criminal trials, a plan that would make good on his promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison but could require creation of a controversial new system of justice.
During his campaign, Obama described Guantanamo as a “sad chapter in American history” and has said generally that the U.S. legal system is equipped to handle the detainees. But he has offered few details on what he planned to do once the facility is closed.
Under plans being put together in Obama’s camp, some detainees would be released and many others would be prosecuted in U.S. criminal courts.
A third group of detainees — the ones whose cases are most entangled in highly classified information — might have to go before a new court designed especially to handle sensitive national security cases, according to advisers and Democrats involved in the talks. Advisers participating directly in the planning spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans are not final.
The move would be a sharp deviation from the Bush administration, which established military tribunals to prosecute detainees at the Navy base in Cuba and strongly opposes bringing prisoners to the United States. Obama’s Republican challenger, John McCain, had also pledged to close Guantanamo. But McCain opposed criminal trials, saying the Bush administration’s tribunals should continue on U.S. soil.
The plan being developed by Obama’s team has been championed by legal scholars from both political parties. But it is almost certain to face opposition from Republicans who oppose bringing terrorism suspects to the U.S. and from Democrats who oppose creating a new court system with fewer rights for detainees.
Laurence Tribe, a Harvard law professor and Obama legal adviser, said discussions about plans for Guantanamo had been “theoretical” before the election but would quickly become very focused because closing the prison is a top priority. Bringing the detainees to the United States will be controversial, he said, but could be accomplished.
“I think the answer is going to be, they can be as securely guarded on U.S. soil as anywhere else,” Tribe said. “We can’t put people in a dungeon forever without processing whether they deserve to be there.”
The tougher challenge will be allaying fears by Democrats who believe the Bush administration’s military commissions were a farce and dislike the idea of giving detainees anything less than the full constitutional rights normally enjoyed by everyone on U.S. soil.
“There would be concern about establishing a completely new system,” said Rep. Adam Schiff of California, a member of the House Judiciary Committee and former federal prosecutor who is aware of the discussions in the Obama camp. “And in the sense that establishing a regimen of detention that includes American citizens and foreign nationals that takes place on U.S. soil and departs from the criminal justice system — trying to establish that would be very difficult.”
Obama has said the civilian and military court-martial systems provide “a framework for dealing with the terrorists,” and Tribe said the administration would look to those venues before creating a new legal system. But discussions of what a new system would look like have already started.
“It would have to be some sort of hybrid that involves military commissions that actually administer justice rather than just serve as kangaroo courts,” Tribe said. “It will have to both be and appear to be fundamentally fair in light of the circumstances. I think people are going to give an Obama administration the benefit of the doubt in that regard.”
Though a hybrid court may be unpopular, other advisers and Democrats involved in the Guantanamo Bay discussions say Obama has few other options.
Prosecuting all detainees in federal courts raises a host of problems. Evidence gathered through military interrogation or from intelligence sources might be thrown out. Defendants would have the right to confront witnesses, meaning undercover CIA officers or terrorist turncoats might have to take the stand, jeopardizing their cover and revealing classified intelligence tactics.
In theory, Obama could try to transplant the Bush administration’s military commission system from Guantanamo Bay to a U.S. prison. But Tribe said, and other advisers agreed, that was “a nonstarter.” With lax evidence rules and intense secrecy, the military commissions have been criticized by human rights groups, defense attorneys and even some military prosecutors who quit the process in protest.
“I don’t think we need to completely reinvent the wheel, but we need a better tribunal process that is more transparent,” Schiff said.
That means something different would need to be done if detainees couldn’t be released or prosecuted in traditional court
Does This Scare The H Out Of You?
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This is a huge mistake. As long as the detainees are on international waters they are not given rights that are granted to all US citizens or even illegals that are on US soil. Once here they are given all the rights that we have. Habeaus Corpus! Each day hearing about more and more of his plans makes me that much more clear that he is going to destroy America.
Yea its a great idea. Imagine giving legal representation to criminals who haven’t been charged with anything.
Maybe the bush way is better for the sadist cons…. torture them, beat them and humiliate them all without ever having charged them with anything.
That is some good news. We need to give legal representation to the prisoners in GITMO, it wasn’t right for us to just hold them indefinitely without being charged for anything.
Yes it does. Talk about your glowing neon sign that screams “He Doesn’t Get It!” This just proves one of my greatest fears about Obama. It is more important for him to be popular than for him to protect our country.
God bless our country, we need it!
Obama has no respect for our military, their efforts, intelligence or, protocols.
This is but the first symptom of that. Others will follow.
Yes, scary. I guess the military is just going to have to learn to take fewer prisoners.
As an Obama supporter, I don’t support this idea. We have enough prisoners in the U.S. already.
I’m looking forward to learning more about it.
The fat lady has sung so please stop beating the horse, he’s dead.
“The move would be a sharp deviation from the Bush administration”
How bad could it be?
I have a feeling that we ain’t seen nothing yet…
While bringing these prisoners to the United States may be controversial.
In doing so atleast these people would be afforded some semblance of justice.
These Kangaroo courts are unfair. Should never have been created to begin with.
If the United States wants to follow the rule of law and expects others to do the same, then we ought to have fair and impartial courts available to conduct these trials.
I served with the Judge Advocate Generals Command and these courts at Guantanamo are a complete joke and should be disbanded and replaced with a fair and equitible system of justice.
What scares the hell out of me is the fact that Bush created these detention facilities off shore so that he could conduct illegal interrogations and deny fair hearings before a fair court.
As a former dentention facility commander. I know what kind of sadistic crap goes on behind the scenes and what’ the american military has done in Guantanomo and elsewhere in the treatment of detainees is criminal.
Hopefully the Joint Chiefs will arrest Obama and put HIM behind bars.
Charges? Well, let’s see, impersonating a US citizen for starters…
The Obamanation is a LIAR like all the “approved” candidates. He should be letting them all go, and declaring the phony “war ‘on’ terror” a sick and twisted hoax. The Terrorist is in the White House. And on January 20th, he’ll still be there, only with a different last name.
Sure.
Why not?
Look in the real world.
Decode this lyrics ” Who will save the world”
How the children transmitted “SOS”
When everyone still looking up the sky.
Without being aware they were communicating at loss and stranded out there in time.
Thought what’s wrong with them.
Realized no one even aware where we are leading them to in time.
Still thinking we having good time out there in time.
Thanks to YA while passing by were able to shake and wake someone to look into it before leaving with time.
Luke 9.25,55-56,60
What do you think?
The US is the one that screwed up by detaining them in the first place. The US has a responsibility to do SOMETHING with them! They cannot just let them rot in prison forever because no one wants them…
EDIT: And no, it doesn’t scare me at all.
yeah the H’s within me are perfectly fine thank you, i am never scared of anything that has to do with Terrorism. Something has to be done about the detainees, considering Bush’s “interpretation” of the justice system, anything that Obama does will certainly be far more credible and educated than anything Bush did. Since Bush abused the eff out of the justice department and pretty much every other power given to him, i don’t care if Obama creates a game show for the detainees to jumping jack their way out, it will be better than Bush.
In case you haven’t heard, over half the detainees aren’t guilty of anything and yet we imprison them in countries where torture is acceptable. This process has increased the worlds black view of America and further put our own troops at risk of torture. This sounds like a sound move to me. Let them have their day in court and let them see what charges and evidence we have against them. Did you know they don’t get that now? We’ve held some of these people for years without charges being brought. How would you like that?
Yea this is a stupid idea that in it’s best case will just be a large waste of money. It’s worse case could be much more intolerable. If one american citizen is hurt, killed, or even has to live with fear because they had to testify against a terrorist that gets given citizenship then it is not worth it.
Sometimes I wish these people knew what we are dealing with. God forbid they learn the hard way.
If the other answerer’s are right, then we should never have kept all of those Nazi POWs prisoner until after WWII and should never have tried the war criminals and executed them. We should have turned them all loose so as to negate the efforts of the millions who were murdered and the millions who fought to end the Nazi empire. Saddam Hussein was just as evil as Hitler, and his followers were just as bad. Yes it does scare and worry me that anyone wants to reward evil with the justice that they denied others. Hang them.
if they cant be prosecuted in a traditional court then they arent guilty of anything. thats how the law system works. if you dont like it go to a middle eastern country. they have a poor justice system there.
what thumbs down for stating how the western worlds justice sytstem works. i swear it seems like so many people would prefer guilty till proven innocent
A lot of their countries won’t accept them back. That’s why some of them are still in GITMO. Guess they’ll be our fellow Americans soon if Obama gets his way.
sl: Very true, and frightening. Between CAIR and the ACLU, you can bet most of them will be found innocent.