Tribunals revived for Gitmo detainees

Posted by ConnPolitics.tv Staff on May 15th, 2009

Washington (AP) – President Barak Obama said Friday he is reviving the Bush-era military tribunals for a small number of Guantanamo detainees though with several new legal protections for terror suspects.

“This is the best way to protect our country, while upholding our deeply held values,” the president said in a statement.

For now, the military trials will remain on hold, as they have been since the beginning of his administration, as he changes the legal system that is expected to try fewer than 20 of the 241 detainees now being held at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The president said that immediate rule changes governing the trials, carried by out executive authority, will begin to bring them in line with the rule of law, most significantly by altering some rules of allowable evidence. Obama also is asking Congress to change the 2006 law creating the current, on-hold tribunal system to enact more sweeping reforms.

Pentagon lawyers were filing a continuance request with the military commissions judge. It appeared the administration was asking for a four-month delay in trials to give it time to enact at least the initial rule changes, but that timeframe has been in flux over recent days and wasn’t immediately clear.

Obama did not specify a timeframe in his statement.

The tribunal system was established after the military began taking detainees from the battlefields of Afghanistan in late 2001. But it immediately came under repeated challenges from human rights and legal organizations, because it denied defendants most of the rights they would be granted in a civilian courtroom or even in a traditional military court martial.

The president’s decision to go forward with tribunals, though in a new way, puts him in the position of reviving a Bush-era trial system he once assailed as deeply flawed – and which he opposed as a senator.

| Posted in News, President Barack Obama
| 7 feedbacks »
Comment from: John St. John [Visitor] Email
I am more concerned with the lies that Nancy Pelosi is doing towards our CIA. This is despicable, dishonest, vicious and trivial-- not to mention far more serious that what Obama is doing at gitmo.... come on Channel 8 wake up and stop trying to shield Pelosi and her ought right lunacy towards the CIA that will have far more reaching consequence than Obama following in Bushes foot steps....
05/15/09 @ 16:12
Comment from: Independent Observer [Visitor] Email
If Obama keeps reversing himself and accepting the Bush approach to deal with terrorism, the left and media will have a melt down. After their wrong headed credibility is more important than America. Then of course they will try and spin it into something else rather than admit the Bush policy was/is the best option.
05/15/09 @ 17:40
Comment from: Able [Visitor] Email
Quit confusing 'the left' with supporters of Obama.
05/16/09 @ 02:50
Comment from: disable [Visitor] Email
Confuse?
05/16/09 @ 11:07
Comment from: Janie [Visitor] Email
One of CT's Reps - naturally a Dem - we don't have any other kind I guess - yesterday gushed about how much integrity Nancy Pelosi has in her little finger comparing her to Rove and Cheney. That's the only song they ever sing and I suppose we'll hear it again for Dodd. God help us!
05/16/09 @ 11:43
Comment from: Able [Visitor] Email
Yes, confuse. To claim that 'The Left' supports Obama, is the same as saying 'The Right' supported George Bush, which is obviously a fallacy. Both the 'left' and 'right', are diverse.

People are having a hissy fit over Nancy Pelosi, which is fine, but find it unconscionable to question past crimes? Hilarious!
05/16/09 @ 13:19
Comment from: glennamacdonald [Visitor] Email
2nd Kings 20:12,I suggest The President read this,and listen to what Christifor Walken said in the movie Phophecy about loose lips sink ship!.
~Peace Glenna~
05/17/09 @ 10:45

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