Obama Seeks 120-Day Halt to Legal Proceedings at Guantanamo

[Auburn85 438]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...ml?hpid=topnews

By Peter Finn

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, Jan. 20 -- In one of its first actions, the Obama administration instructed military prosecutors late Tuesday to seek a 120-day halt of legal proceedings involving detainees at the Guantanamo Bay naval base -- a clear break with the approach of the outgoing Bush administration.

The instruction came in a motion filed late Tuesday with a military court handling the case of five defendants accused of organizing the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. The motion called for "a continuance of the proceedings" until May 20 so that "the newly inaugurated president and his administration [can] review the military commissions process, generally, and the cases currently pending before military commissions, specifically."

Such a request may not be automatically granted by military judges, and not all defense attorneys may not agree to such a suspension. The government's request will have to be ruled on by military judges Wednesday.

But the move is a first step towards closing a detention facility and system of military trials that became a worldwide symbol of the Bush administration's war on terror, and its unyielding attitude to foreign and domestic critics.

The legal maneuver appears designed to provide the Obama administration time to refashion the prosecution system and potentially treat detainees as criminal defendants in federal court or to have them face war-crime charges in military courts-martial. It is also possible that the administration could reform and relocate the military commissions before resuming trials.

"We would rather have seen the charges withdrawn, but it's a good indication that military commissions will not go forward," said Stacy Sullivan, counter-terrorism at Human Rights Watch.

Pre-trial hearings for the 9/11 defendants were scheduled to resume Wednesday. Another case, involving Omar Khadr, a Canadian accused of killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan when he was 15, was also about to begin.

Obama has acknowledged in recent interviews that shutting the facility here is likely to be prolonged and complex. And the administration now faces a collection of potentially daunting challenges to follow through on the president's campaign promise to close the detention camp. Obama is soon expected to sign an executive order that will lay out in detail his plan to empty out the facility, which is located at a U.S. naval base on the southeastern tip of Cuba.

Obama must decide how and where to prosecute detainees such as Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. He must convince communities in the United States that terrorist suspects can be safely moved to military or civilian prisons in the continental United States, and press diplomatic negotiations to repatriate or resettle prisoners who can be released. And he must consider settling some small number of detainees in the United States to help convince allies to take others.

More than 50 prisoners are already slated for release but cannot be returned home because of fears they will be tortured or abused in their home countries. They include 17 Chinese Uighurs who were ordered released into the United States in October by a federal judge who said the government presented no evidence they were enemy combatants or security risks.

The Bush administration appealed the ruling, and the Chinese Muslims remain housed in a special, low-security facility at Guantanamo.

[autigeremt 7,537]

Well....here comes the rain. As expected, President Obama has decided to allow foriegn terror fighters to be tried as if they were American citizens. Now, we can allow for more federal tax dollars to be poured into their detention while on American soil, where they will be treated as rock stars by the anti-american fringe.

YES WE CAN!

[TigerHeat 9]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...ml?hpid=topnews

By Peter Finn

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, Jan. 20 -- In one of its first actions, the Obama administration instructed military prosecutors late Tuesday to seek a 120-day halt of legal proceedings involving detainees at the Guantanamo Bay naval base -- a clear break with the approach of the outgoing Bush administration.

The instruction came in a motion filed late Tuesday with a military court handling the case of five defendants accused of organizing the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. The motion called for "a continuance of the proceedings" until May 20 so that "the newly inaugurated president and his administration [can] review the military commissions process, generally, and the cases currently pending before military commissions, specifically."

Such a request may not be automatically granted by military judges, and not all defense attorneys may not agree to such a suspension. The government's request will have to be ruled on by military judges Wednesday.

But the move is a first step towards closing a detention facility and system of military trials that became a worldwide symbol of the Bush administration's war on terror, and its unyielding attitude to foreign and domestic critics.

The legal maneuver appears designed to provide the Obama administration time to refashion the prosecution system and potentially treat detainees as criminal defendants in federal court or to have them face war-crime charges in military courts-martial. It is also possible that the administration could reform and relocate the military commissions before resuming trials.

"We would rather have seen the charges withdrawn, but it's a good indication that military commissions will not go forward," said Stacy Sullivan, counter-terrorism at Human Rights Watch.

Pre-trial hearings for the 9/11 defendants were scheduled to resume Wednesday. Another case, involving Omar Khadr, a Canadian accused of killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan when he was 15, was also about to begin.

Obama has acknowledged in recent interviews that shutting the facility here is likely to be prolonged and complex. And the administration now faces a collection of potentially daunting challenges to follow through on the president's campaign promise to close the detention camp. Obama is soon expected to sign an executive order that will lay out in detail his plan to empty out the facility, which is located at a U.S. naval base on the southeastern tip of Cuba.

Obama must decide how and where to prosecute detainees such as Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. He must convince communities in the United States that terrorist suspects can be safely moved to military or civilian prisons in the continental United States, and press diplomatic negotiations to repatriate or resettle prisoners who can be released. And he must consider settling some small number of detainees in the United States to help convince allies to take others.

More than 50 prisoners are already slated for release but cannot be returned home because of fears they will be tortured or abused in their home countries. They include 17 Chinese Uighurs who were ordered released into the United States in October by a federal judge who said the government presented no evidence they were enemy combatants or security risks.

The Bush administration appealed the ruling, and the Chinese Muslims remain housed in a special, low-security facility at Guantanamo.

Wow. Thanks. Those folks are exactly what we need living out here on welfare. We can't give them back to China because we know how the Chinese deal with their growing radical Muslim problem....and their solution doesn't use lamp shades.

[autigeremt 7,537]

Unless it's attached to the outlet and exposed to the elements. LOL

[autiger4life 3]

We can't give them back to China because we know how the Chinese deal with their growing radical Muslim problem....and their solution doesn't use lamp shades.

Gah, if only we could be more like China. Oh wait, we aren't supposed to be socialist. But I guess you can use the, "Obama will make us like China" when talking about economy, and then throw we should be like China with defense. Got it.

Don't worry about the fact that the two work together. We will let logic be someone else's problem.

[autigeremt 7,537]

We can't give them back to China because we know how the Chinese deal with their growing radical Muslim problem....and their solution doesn't use lamp shades.

Gah, if only we could be more like China. Oh wait, we aren't supposed to be socialist. But I guess you can use the, "Obama will make us like China" when talking about economy, and then throw we should be like China with defense. Got it.

Don't worry about the fact that the two work together. We will let logic be someone else's problem.

Why can't we have a sensible defense and a capitalistic economy? Do you consider this move logical, or emotionally driven? Do you think we should give the rights of law abiding citizens to those who were trying to destroy our way of life on a foriegn battlefield?

Not sure what "logic" you mean, but I don't want a part of it.

[SouthLink02 8]

As expected, President Obama has decided to allow foriegn terror fighters to be tried as if they were American citizens.

If the prosecutors do their work, it won't be a problem

If they can't, maybe we don't have the right men

I have no problem with our tax dollars doing this

Rock stars? Have you ever been to the prisons that they are going to be sentenced to?

[GoAU 1,708]

As expected, President Obama has decided to allow foriegn terror fighters to be tried as if they were American citizens.

If the prosecutors do their work, it won't be a problem

If they can't, maybe we don't have the right men

I have no problem with our tax dollars doing this

Rock stars? Have you ever been to the prisons that they are going to be sentenced to?

C'mon Slink - you know these clowns are guilty, why waste time and resources granting rights and privlidges to people that not only aren't American citizens, but were actively fighting against us?

[CCTAU 3,872]

As expected, President Obama has decided to allow foriegn terror fighters to be tried as if they were American citizens.

If the prosecutors do their work, it won't be a problem

If they can't, maybe we don't have the right men

I have no problem with our tax dollars doing this

Rock stars? Have you ever been to the prisons that they are going to be sentenced to?

C'mon Slink - you know these clowns are guilty, why waste time and resources granting rights and privlidges to people that not only aren't American citizens, but were actively fighting against us?

As a show of good faith, every person that wishes to grant these scumbags rights should open their house and host one of these bastards while they are on trial. Better yet, if they are so deserving, step up and be a surrogate for one of these vermin. Sign your life's work and possessions over so that when they blow themselves up or kill another American, you lose everything you own, maybe even be the one they kill. Until this happens, these guys should remain as far away from American soil as possible. Unless they are underneath it.

[autigeremt 7,537]

BINGO!

[SouthLink02 8]

C'mon Slink - you know these clowns are guilty, why waste time and resources granting rights and privlidges to people that not only aren't American citizens, but were actively fighting against us?

No, I don't know if they are guilty or not

If the evidence is enough, then they will be found guilty. It wouldn't take much to find them such either so the evidence would not need to be over-whelming.

The fact that some want to quickly lock them up without any trial shows me they know that we have little evidence on some of them and they may or may not be who we want them to be. We released 160+ in 2005 with no charge so apparently we are far from perfect on rounding them up.

[TitanTiger 22,249]

I don't see how anyone can advocate keeping people in prison indefinitely when we don't have the proof that they know anything and were anything other than foot soldiers for the other side (and some we don't even know that for sure). Taking the attitude that "we know they are guilty" when we apparently can't prove it is akin to saying, "Beat your kids every day. Even if you don't know why, they do."

[CCTAU 3,872]

I don't see how anyone can advocate keeping people in prison indefinitely when we don't have the proof that they know anything and were anything other than foot soldiers for the other side (and some we don't even know that for sure). Taking the attitude that "we know they are guilty" when we apparently can't prove it is akin to saying, "Beat your kids every day. Even if you don't know why, they do."

Foot soldiers for an army that does not exist are called a terrorists or spies. Aren't they supposed to be shot?

Like I said, sponsor one at your house. If these guys are not good enough for your house and your neighborhood, why advocate possibly turning them loose in mine?