Monday
Mar092009
War on Terror: Obama Keeps a Grip on Bush Executive Power (Part 2)
Monday, March 9, 2009 at 7:26
Related Post: War on Terror Watch - Obama Keeps a Grip on Bush’s Executive Powers
Within The New York Times report on its Friday interview with President Obama, obscured by the article's misleading focus on Afghanistan, is a revealing insight into the Obama Administration's approach on the "War on Terror": talk the talk, but no walking the walk when it comes to giving back legal rights.
Obama's answer to the Times reporters was definitive, "We [must] ultimately provide anybody that we’re detaining an opportunity through habeas corpus. to answer to charges."
In fact, it was too definitive. Before the Times published the article on the interview, "Aides...said Mr. Obama did not mean to suggest that everybody held by American forces would be granted habeas corpus or the right to challenge their detention."
Oh.
Apparently, the President was referring "only to a Supreme Court decision last year finding that prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, have the right to go to federal court to challenge their continued detention". He was not referring to the US prison at Camp Bagram, Afghanistan, where there are more than 600 detainees and where the number is expected to double in the near-future.
And, as we noted earlier this morning, he must not be referring to the indefinite detention of a US citizen on US soil, since his Justice Department is refusing to vacate the principle that habeas corpus can be suspended by the President.
Nope, when the President refers to restoring the legal rights of "anybody", what he must mean is "anybody whom the Supreme Court, after years of hearings and attempted blocking and evasion by the Justice Department, rules has legal rights".
Perhaps the unnamed, unseen "aides" can call us to ensure there are no more corrections to be made.
Within The New York Times report on its Friday interview with President Obama, obscured by the article's misleading focus on Afghanistan, is a revealing insight into the Obama Administration's approach on the "War on Terror": talk the talk, but no walking the walk when it comes to giving back legal rights.Obama's answer to the Times reporters was definitive, "We [must] ultimately provide anybody that we’re detaining an opportunity through habeas corpus. to answer to charges."
In fact, it was too definitive. Before the Times published the article on the interview, "Aides...said Mr. Obama did not mean to suggest that everybody held by American forces would be granted habeas corpus or the right to challenge their detention."
Oh.
Apparently, the President was referring "only to a Supreme Court decision last year finding that prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, have the right to go to federal court to challenge their continued detention". He was not referring to the US prison at Camp Bagram, Afghanistan, where there are more than 600 detainees and where the number is expected to double in the near-future.
And, as we noted earlier this morning, he must not be referring to the indefinite detention of a US citizen on US soil, since his Justice Department is refusing to vacate the principle that habeas corpus can be suspended by the President.
Nope, when the President refers to restoring the legal rights of "anybody", what he must mean is "anybody whom the Supreme Court, after years of hearings and attempted blocking and evasion by the Justice Department, rules has legal rights".
Perhaps the unnamed, unseen "aides" can call us to ensure there are no more corrections to be made.
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