The Obama administration has already adopted extreme executive privilege arguments that dwarfed the arguments of George Bush. It has moved to kill dozens of citizens lawsuits to uncover criminal acts of the government. This week, it refused (despite a court ruling) to release embarrassing photos of detainee abuse. Now, in the continue morphing with the prior Administration, Barack Obama is considering a continuation of the Bush policy of indefinitely detaining suspects without trial. I will be discussing this and other issues today on the Ed Beck Show on MSNBC.
Members of Congress are being consulted on the idea. Given the lack of principles motivating democratic leaders in past instances of unlawful surveillance and torture, it is not expected to received to hit much problem in Congress.
The result is that we close the Gitmo facility to recreate it on U.S. soil. The proposal reflects the concern that, if forced to comply with federal law, we could not justify the continued detention of these individuals. If Obama is worried that some added pictures of detainee abuses will be used to recruit new volunteers for Al Qaeda, what does he think his replication of Gitmo will do for recruiters?
As I mentioned last night on Rachel Maddow, the Obama Administration has become the greatest bait and switch in history. No torture prosecution. No abuse photos. No citizen lawsuit on privacy. Absolute executive privilege claims. It is not surprising that civil libertarians feel that we have succeeded in merely upgrading to Bush 1.2 (with the added ability to pronounce multisyllabic terms).
For the full story, click here.
I am watching a Democratic and Republican Senator saying that if Gitmo crew are moved to maximum security institutions, they will expect the rights that “normal” criminals have, particularly access to habeus corpus. Thus they might actually be released into the community.
I have several questions that I am hoping a reader might answer. These are not rhetorical questions. I do not know the answer.
1) Have all these “worst of the worst” been charged?
2) Have they access to all of the information leading to the charges?
3) Have they had access to adequate legal counsel?
Can they really be held at a max. security institution, or for that matter anywhere, indefinitely without access to our legal system?
Would appreciate any answers.
Thanks.
This is yet more more example of why we must not *wait* to observe how Mr. O is going to act. If any of you have see Mountaintop Removal up close and have flown over such areas, you know of the devastating environment damage that occurs.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/05/17-2
Obama’s EPA clears 42 of 48 New Mountaintop Removal Mining Permits
by Ken Ward Jr.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Obama administration has cleared more than three-dozen new mountaintop removal permits for issuance by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, drawing quick criticism from environmental groups who had hoped the new president would halt the controversial practice.
In a surprise announcement Friday, Rep. Nick J. Rahall said 42 of the 48 permits already examined by the U.S. Environmental Protection had been approved by EPA for issuance by the corps.
“It is unfortunate that, when EPA once again began reviewing proposed coal mining permits earlier this year, alarmists claimed that a moratorium on permit issuance was being proposed,” Rahall said in a telephone news conference. “That was not that case then, and it is not the case now.”
Mike
I haven’t gotten around to reading the full WSJ article…. wasn’t Karl Rove quoted?
Nevertheless what springs to mind is this:
quis custodiat ipsos custodes
who shall guard the guardians themselves?
“Mike S.,
You have done a good job in suggesting that it would be nice to have some sources behind the story that the WSJ is throwing out there. I would ask for that from any progressive paper, but especially from a conservative paper like the Wall Street Journal. I wouldn’t trust the WSJ without some serious confirmation.”
Rafflaw,
Thank you but as you can see it made not one dent, nor seemed to give anyone a moment’s pause. Pre-Judgment is the rule of the day and if something fits with your own personal belief, then damn the facts and full speed ahead. When I see the enormous variety and depth of problems this President walked into and the clamor from the Anti-Bush side (to which I belong)to blame him for not doing enough on all the issues, an old joke from the 50’s comes to mind.
Aside from all that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?
To me the analogy is that while lip service is paid to all the problems the man faces, none of his own making, each step he takes is judged as not being enough, or a retrogression. It is as if the man was working in a vacuum on each issue and that he had total control of the whole process. Criticism of an Administration is always proper and appropriate. Self fulfilling prophecies though seldom bring positive political change, although they make their proponents feel good.
Please read this report. I know many people do not want to believe Obama could be involved in wrongdoing but to ignore clear indications otherwise allows the harm of our detainees to continue. Harm to the helpless must outweight political loyalty. This is by Jeremy Scahill. He is not part of the MSM. He wrote a book outing the misdeeds of Blackwater.
“Bush-era ‘Black Shirts’ Continue Reign of Terror Under Obama at Gitmo: gang beating prisoners, breaking bones, gouging eyes, squeezing testicles, and ‘dousing’ them with chemicals.”
http://rebelreports.com/
Leo, I want a Ferrari
Obama is a waste of time and very dangerous.
eniobob,
Unfortunately, we do not have a year for Mr. O to start this race to oblivion if he does not enjoin in the marathon against the U.S. Constitution and the Rule of Law.
I want the man to succeed.
Doesnt you mean the Ed Shultz show? Not being a smartass Jonathan—I love ya. I wish you had your own show on tv. I would LOVE to watch an hour of Constitutional law every day. That would be AWESOME!
FFLEO:
I too am having same reservations as you,I ran my thoughts by a friend of mind and his thoughts were,that he would give him a year,before he made a judgement.
And I think to be fair that may be right.But it seems as if he wants to do the right thing,but at the same time,he seems not to see whats going on right in front of him.
I hope he will prove me wrong,and somehow everything will fall into place,but trying to go forward when some many things are making us look backwards,its not to encouraging at this point.
Mike S.,
You have done a good job in suggesting that it would be nice to have some sources behind the story that the WSJ is throwing out there. I would ask for that from any progressive paper, but especially from a conservative paper like the Wall Street Journal. I wouldn’t trust the WSJ without some serious confirmation.
Hey folks we all need to calm down for a minute. Give the President a chance. With President Obamas background in Con-Law he knows and fully understands the law. I take him at his word. Did you think for a minute that the Bush/Cheney boys have left some major stink bombs which are probably still classified and he cant do one without the other? We all know that a special prosecutor is coming and all of this will be handled the proper way, which I think is what the President really wants. Remember we are not dealing with Bush/Cheney.
JT, you know the reason I sought you out here is because of your knowledge of Constitution law and your pretentious Criminal Law Review article ‘From Pillar to Post’.
You’ve continued to inspire me in many other ways, as well.
I would have loved for the state of ME and/or any of the original ’13’ besides, to have succeeded in picking up the charge to impeach Cheney AND Bush while systematically getting rid of people, like Gonzales, BEFORE they all slithered out of town.
For ‘the States’ to have done so, outside of Washington circles, under the grand jury system and republican form of government, would have been the cherry on top!
I’d like to think I had a little something to do with that
penultimate one. Unfortunately, we were foisted with Mukasey in the meantime. Bush and Co. with help from Gonzales et al changed the script – for everybody.
Obama shouldn’t never have been saddled with making his, and possibly last, term all about cleaning up their mess and especially not for their apparent benefit only. They and their neocon friends need to suffer for what they did and I am
beginning to see that they are, finally!
I’m anxious for us all to see more and I hope we will!
I can still hear my father saying “Use your head for something other than a hatrack, Friend!”
And though it sounds backwards, we should consider using the
hatracks as something other than our heads, as well…! 😉
p.s. I came across this the other day… Sound familiar?
http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/I+beg+your+pardon
…” In December 1992, President george h.w. bush pardoned six officials of the ronald reagan administration who were implicated in the Iran-Contra Affair. Bush granted the pardons shortly before leaving office. He based the pardons on his belief that the officials had been prosecuted over policy differences rather than for criminal acts….”
isn’t indefinite detention the reason for the Magna Carta