Obama Administration Re-Instating Military Commissions Would Be Unconscionable
Military commissions created by the criminal Bush regime were kangaroo courts established to bypass the Geneva Conventions and other rules of law. As I've written before, they were another stain on the US inflicted by the Bushites trampling the Constitution and human rights. Our existing federal judicial system and/or military courts martial system were the constitutional way to try the accused.
However, after the Bush administration's horrendous, lawless mistreatment of Guantanamo detainees: denying them habeas corpus rights, torturing them, and planning to keep them imprisoned forever, the criminal Bushites not only pissed on the Constitution and human rights but destroyed the US democratic concept of equal justice under the law and created a judicial debacle regarding these detainees.
So why would the Obama administration even consider, if the rumors are to be believed, re-instating these despicable marks of an authoritarian,imperial, proto-fascist Bush regime?
William Fisher writes at Public Record:
"Reports circulating in Washington suggest that President Barack Obama may try to revive the military commission system for prosecuting Guantánamo detainees, which Obama himself criticized during the administration of his predecessor, former President George W. Bush.
"While some detainees would be tried in federal courts, administration lawyers are reportedly concerned that some terrorism suspects could not be prosecuted in this way because they were subjected to brutal interrogations or because some of the evidence against them is based on hearsay.
"During the presidential campaign, Obama was critical of the commissions. He said, “By any measure our system of trying detainees has been an enormous failure,” and declared that as president he would “reject the Military Commissions Act.”
"Court challenges and repeated delays have made the military commissions virtually dysfunctional. The result has been that detainees were denied basic rights of American law.
"Only two trials have been completed in the nearly eight years since the Bush administration announced that it would use military tribunals.
"The administration is likely to make it more difficult for prosecutors to admit hearsay, while not excluding it entirely, government lawyers reportedly said. The hearsay issue is central to many Guantánamo cases because the hearsay is based on secret intelligence reports and detainees may never be allowed to cross-examine the sources of those reports.Continuing the military commissions in any form has already drawn sharp criticism from human rights advocates, who say that they would curtail the protections defendants would routinely receive in civilian courts.
"Jonathan Hafetz, an ACLU attorney, told us, 'Military commissions to try Guantanamo detainees have been a failed experiment in lawlessness. No effort by a new administration to provide ‘window dressing’ will change that. The only reason to perpetuate to military commissions in any form would be to circumvent the protections of the criminal justice system and insulate torture and other abuses from review. The criminal justice system is fully adequate to prosecute terrorism cases while remaining faithful to the Constitution and American values.'
"David Cole of Georgetown University, a widely recognized constitutional authority, told us, 'The critical issue is that any war crimes trials be meticulously fair. I think what they are called matters less than whether they meet fundamental principles of fairness. But one has to wonder why, if they are planning on fair trials, they cannot use the military justice system we use for our own servicemen.'
"An even harsher view came from Prof. Francis A. Boyle of the University of Chicago law school. He told us, 'These Kangaroo Courts violate the Geneva Conventions and are thus a war crime, even as determined by the United States Supreme Court itself in the Hamdan decision. There is no way they can be reformed.'
"He added that the Geneva Conventions “require the use of regular, organized courts, which in this case would mean prosecution in United States Federal District Courts or else prosecution by means of formal U.S. military court-martial proceedings with all the protections of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. To do otherwise is a war crime.”
"Shane Kadidal, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, told us, “One could read some of Eric Holder's statements about the Commissions (from months ago) as not being categorical rejections of the idea of military trials or even of the present system, but instead implying that layering on extra due process protections would allow the currently temporarily-stayed trials to continue. But doing so would be a legal mistake because it would not solve the retroactivity problem -- the fact that the offenses defendants are charged with were created by the military commissions act years after they were arrested.”
"Gabor Rona, international legal director of Human Rights First, said, “The administration is making a huge mistake if they believe getting convictions through suspect methods is more valuable than letting justice take its course.”
"The four-month suspension of military commission proceedings ordered by Obama is due to end May 20."
Obama's Department of Justice, headed by Eric Holder, is becoming as much a disappointment and potential disaster as his economic team.
However, after the Bush administration's horrendous, lawless mistreatment of Guantanamo detainees: denying them habeas corpus rights, torturing them, and planning to keep them imprisoned forever, the criminal Bushites not only pissed on the Constitution and human rights but destroyed the US democratic concept of equal justice under the law and created a judicial debacle regarding these detainees.
So why would the Obama administration even consider, if the rumors are to be believed, re-instating these despicable marks of an authoritarian,imperial, proto-fascist Bush regime?
William Fisher writes at Public Record:
"Reports circulating in Washington suggest that President Barack Obama may try to revive the military commission system for prosecuting Guantánamo detainees, which Obama himself criticized during the administration of his predecessor, former President George W. Bush.
"While some detainees would be tried in federal courts, administration lawyers are reportedly concerned that some terrorism suspects could not be prosecuted in this way because they were subjected to brutal interrogations or because some of the evidence against them is based on hearsay.
"During the presidential campaign, Obama was critical of the commissions. He said, “By any measure our system of trying detainees has been an enormous failure,” and declared that as president he would “reject the Military Commissions Act.”
"Court challenges and repeated delays have made the military commissions virtually dysfunctional. The result has been that detainees were denied basic rights of American law.
"Only two trials have been completed in the nearly eight years since the Bush administration announced that it would use military tribunals.
"The administration is likely to make it more difficult for prosecutors to admit hearsay, while not excluding it entirely, government lawyers reportedly said. The hearsay issue is central to many Guantánamo cases because the hearsay is based on secret intelligence reports and detainees may never be allowed to cross-examine the sources of those reports.Continuing the military commissions in any form has already drawn sharp criticism from human rights advocates, who say that they would curtail the protections defendants would routinely receive in civilian courts.
"Jonathan Hafetz, an ACLU attorney, told us, 'Military commissions to try Guantanamo detainees have been a failed experiment in lawlessness. No effort by a new administration to provide ‘window dressing’ will change that. The only reason to perpetuate to military commissions in any form would be to circumvent the protections of the criminal justice system and insulate torture and other abuses from review. The criminal justice system is fully adequate to prosecute terrorism cases while remaining faithful to the Constitution and American values.'
"David Cole of Georgetown University, a widely recognized constitutional authority, told us, 'The critical issue is that any war crimes trials be meticulously fair. I think what they are called matters less than whether they meet fundamental principles of fairness. But one has to wonder why, if they are planning on fair trials, they cannot use the military justice system we use for our own servicemen.'
"An even harsher view came from Prof. Francis A. Boyle of the University of Chicago law school. He told us, 'These Kangaroo Courts violate the Geneva Conventions and are thus a war crime, even as determined by the United States Supreme Court itself in the Hamdan decision. There is no way they can be reformed.'
"He added that the Geneva Conventions “require the use of regular, organized courts, which in this case would mean prosecution in United States Federal District Courts or else prosecution by means of formal U.S. military court-martial proceedings with all the protections of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. To do otherwise is a war crime.”
"Shane Kadidal, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, told us, “One could read some of Eric Holder's statements about the Commissions (from months ago) as not being categorical rejections of the idea of military trials or even of the present system, but instead implying that layering on extra due process protections would allow the currently temporarily-stayed trials to continue. But doing so would be a legal mistake because it would not solve the retroactivity problem -- the fact that the offenses defendants are charged with were created by the military commissions act years after they were arrested.”
"Gabor Rona, international legal director of Human Rights First, said, “The administration is making a huge mistake if they believe getting convictions through suspect methods is more valuable than letting justice take its course.”
"The four-month suspension of military commission proceedings ordered by Obama is due to end May 20."
Obama's Department of Justice, headed by Eric Holder, is becoming as much a disappointment and potential disaster as his economic team.
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