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Obama Opposes Right for Detainees in U.S. Military Prisons to Challenge Their Detention

225px-official_portrait_of_barack_obama225px-george-w-bushAfter seeking adopting Bush positions on unlawful surveillance last week, President Obama has adopted another controversial Bush policy: opposing basic legal rights for detainees held in U.S. military prison in Afghanistan. Some of the most egregious allegations of torture and abuse have focused on such prisons as the one at Bagram Air base. President Obama is now claiming that access to courts and review in such cases would threaten national security.

The Administration is pursing this challenge after a adverse ruling by U.S. District Judge John D. Bates and embraces the view of President Bush that individuals held in U.S. jails have no U.S. legal protections so long as the Administration keeps them in outside of our borders. The Obama administration is arguing that the “the military would be unable to move non-Afghan citizens captured across the border in Pakistan” into the prison for “security or centralized intelligence gathering” if they have such basic rights.

The argument is quite extreme because the standard is relatively low. It would not prevent the government from seizing and interrogating individuals. Rather, if the government is going to hold someone for a prolonged period, the government needs to establish an objective basis for the detention — a valuable requirement given the hundreds of detainees later found to be held without justification under the Bush Administration. Judicial review would afford needed protections against such abuses and force officials to use objectively defensible standards in detaining and confining individuals.

For the full story, click here.

27 thoughts on “Obama Opposes Right for Detainees in U.S. Military Prisons to Challenge Their Detention”

  1. Gyges,

    Good one! That was LOL!

    rafflaw,

    I’m glad you liked the article. To me it doesn’t matter if one likes or dislikes, trusts or doesn’t trust the motives of Obama. The only thing that really counts is for us to maintain our own core values–to uphold our Constitution, to maintain the rule of law, and to protect the vunerable from oppression. If we hold fast to our ideals– that this is a country of laws, not of men, that to me is the best way to go. It is something most of us who post here do agree upon.

  2. Barack Hussein Obama, the first tyrannical black American president who is a disgrace to his race through his oppression of other racial groups by continuing the Bush Era war crimes. He is a hypocrite, an abject liar, and as naïve a man as possible for his age and education.

  3. No No Gyges, That is purely a Vice President Privilege. If you make the laws as you go along that is a Congressional Privilege. If you don’t want to do the right thing that is a Judicial Privilege.

    You see since the Bush Wars, He has been exercised all three. Sometimes in the same day.

  4. I misread Annette’s comment as “…He shouldn’t have to break the law. That is what Congress is for… “

  6. The congressional Dems need to introduce legislation to deny Obama the ability to hide his Bagram problem by outlawing the movement of prisoners to other prison sites without a regular Federal Judge’s approval and included in the legislation should be that the government would not be allowed to use the state secret argument to prevent the judge from seeing all of the evidence. I know that second issue would be tough to pass constitutional muster, but I am mainly trying to get Obama to show his true colors on this issue and allow the left to correct his improper stance on the due process of Bagram detainees.
    We have to maintain the pressure on the administration on this issue and we will need the press corp to push for an answer. This issue alone could change his entire presidencey because without the support of the progressive left, he is a one term President. As Professor Turley has stated on numerous occasions, we have a duty to investigate the war crimes by the Bush Administration. Jill, I enjoyed Greenwald’s theory that Obama is taking this approach in order to avoid the necessity of investigating the Bush regime. Obama’s Justice Department’s actions make more sense after I read the Greenwald link. I still don’t like them, but at least I understand a possible reason for these awful actions.

  7. I think Gyges makes a very good point when he says “I think that placing of importance on just one of the three branches is what got us here in the first place.”

    Where is Congress?? The Democrats are in control right?? Why have they not gone in and changed all of the Executive Orders that Bush put in place and reinforced the Habeas Corpus and the other things he put into effect that needs to be changed. Why should Pres. Obama have to do it all himself.

    He is the President. He shouldn’t have to make law. That is what Congress is for. They need to step up and do their job. That is what we send them to Washington for isn’t it??

    If they set the laws in place, like they should be and return the laws back to where they need to be and where they were before Bush messed on them and messed with them, then President Obama will follow the law.

  8. War Criminal Usurper President Obama Wants More War-Funding

    The Notorious Liar Obama wants 83.4 B more to fund the U.S. War Crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Most all of the members of Congress are already highly complicit War Criminals in initiating, funding and occupation of these Wars of Aggression. Now Warmonger Obama seeks to murder and maim more people, make the new members of Congress into War Criminals and steal more of our money. Mass-murderer Obama is also trying to cause more soldiers to become War Criminals by sending them into these illegal wars.

    The U.S. people generally don’t know what is going on due to the fascist U.S. main stream media and fascist U.S. Government telling them lies. But they are coming out of their stupor as they begin to see the many betrayals of Obama and the Congress. It is now becoming very transparent that most of Obama’s campaign promises were lies and they have looted our treasury.

    Obama has been a war criminal for many years in funding US-led Wars of Aggression. He should not have been on the election ballot. He should not have been certified by Congress or sworn in as president. Legally Obama is not the president of the U.S. and can be arrested at any time for War Crimes, treason, mass fraud and a multitude of other crimes. We suspect that Obama is not even a U.S. citizen as no one has seen his long form birth certificate or his other documentation. He has had them sealed from the public.

    As you may know Spain recently has started criminal investigations into U.S. War Crimes. It is expected that 6 of the Bush lawyers will be indicted in Spain this week. Britain also has started U.S. War Crimes investigations. Other countries will follow in investigations and prosecutions. These actions will open up the War Crimes of Washington D.C. – the evil city of the world. Washington is seen to the world as the Berlin of the Hitler years of atrocities. The U.S. Government has violated the same law used to prosecute and convict the Nazis at the Nuremberg Trials. I do not advocate the death penalty but most of those Nazis were hung.

    Please contact Congress members and all other authorities and inform them of the situation. Please forward this to other countries and their national criminal courts for investigations and prosecutions of U.S. War Crimes. We must get Obama and other murderous, treasonous fascists out of our government while we still can.

  9. Bob,

    Point taken, but who says the President is the boss? I think that placing of importance on just one of the three branches is what got us here in the first place.

    For that matter, who says the Fed. Gov’t is the boss?

  11. One thing that Clarence Thomas proves to me is that all men of color do not think the same.

    But many people believe that they,And a lot of people would like to see men of color act just like him,Thomas that is and just be seen and not heard.

    And with Thomas thats not such a bad thing,but hes in the wrong buisiness to be silent.

  12. Dredd,

    In my opinion, obama was precorrupted. If you look at his past voting record; especially the FISA vote where he gave the executive great power over the people, if you see that he took large portions of contributions from the very companies he now favors, if you remember that he did nothing while a reporter from ABC was arrested for mearly doing his job–then I think you find the same man we see today.

  14. Buddha:

    I read the article and it sounds to me like a 60 plus year old guy that is tired and wants to retire. I dont think he was talking about not respecting the Bill of Rights, it sounded like he was trying to tell the children to go out and work and make something of yourself, the “no free lunches” speech.

    The few opinions I have read that he wrote, seem to me, to be in line with individual rights. But then I am not a lawyer so I dont know the nuances.

  17. Glenn Greenwald has an excellent write up on this as well. He quotes from Obama before he became president:

    “The bottom line is this: Current procedures under the CSRT are such that a perfectly innocent individual could be held and could not rebut the Government’s case and has no way of proving his innocence.

    I would like somebody in this Chamber, somebody in this Government, to tell me why this is necessary. I do not want to hear that this is a new world and we face a new kind of enemy.”

    As president Obama has ruled that he may pick up anyone, anywhere if he determines them to be a “terrorist”. He agrees that we are picking up people, not on the battlefield, but from other countries, and taking them to Bagram. He plans to transfere about 66 detainees in Gitmo back to Bagram. Bagram is a black hole. There will be no meaningful way to challenge one’s detention should Obama prevail on this. I cannot fatham doing this to another human being, nor can I imagine how this will aid the US in securing our safety in the “war” on terror.

    From Obama’s sticking with Bush’s idea that there is such a thing as a “war” on terror, through his embracing of and even surpassing bush’s worst positions on executive power against our prisoners and our own population (spying), we see an executive out of control. We see this lawlessness in his refusal to investigate war and financial crimes, neither of which is optional under our on rules of law. This behavior is dangerous. The judicial branch is about the only functioning (law abiding) branch of govt. we have left and I hope Judge Bates strikes this down hard and fast.

  18. Raf:

    I am not a lawyer so I only really know what I read on this website about the legal issues surrounding this (Bush and co war crimes). I understand why you all (on this website) want to try Bush and Chenney for war crimes, although I am not sure it is ever going to happen. Personally I think you ought to try Bush for screwing up the economy along with his court Jester “Hank” Paulson.

    From my point of view (conservative) he (Obama) is probably playing to Iraqi and Afghani politicians who genuinely fear those held in prisons in both countries. And has probably had pressure through back channels. If I were Karzi I would not want certain individuals back on the street. There are so many different tribal loyalties going on we really, I think, dont have a clue. History could show us that we backed the wrong idea (a democratic Iraq and Afghanistan) in the final analysis.

    As much as I hate to admit it, the war in Iraq was a mistake. Bush should have gone into Iran which in my mind, is, along with Saudi Arabia, the focus of the radical Islamic world movement. Money from the Saudis and philosophical Islamic radicalism from the Clerics in Iran. Both the money and the idea must be stopped. Not equating our revolution with Islamic fundamentalism but had Thomas Jefferson not penned the Declaration our Republic, most likely, would have been stilborn.

  19. Bron,
    I am with you on the Pirate action, but this filing by the Justice Department confuses me. (I know that is not hard to do) On one hand I read the recent Newsweek article that said Holder was arguing for the investigation and prosecution of the Bush Torture gang and then I see this posting that they are not only trying to continue the Bush policy about holding prisoners outside of the U.S. in order to keep them outside of the U.S. jurisdiction of the courts, but they are trying to even lower the standard of who they are holding without the benefit of due process. Isn’t this filing a no brainer for the judge to throw out? I hope they slap this down asap.

  20. off topic but good on President Obama for taking out those pirates, dont “f” with a guy from Chicago!

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