Obama to Use Current Law to Support Detentions

[The Minx]

Link

[quote]WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has decided not to seek new legislation from Congress authorizing the indefinite detention of about 50 terrorism suspects being held without charges at at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, officials said Wednesday.

Instead, the administration will continue to hold the detainees without bringing them to trial based on the power it says it has under the Congressional resolution passed after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, authorizing the president to use force against forces of Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

In concluding that it does not need specific permission from Congress to hold detainees without charges, the Obama administration is adopting one of the arguments advanced by the Bush administration in years of debates about detention policies.

But President Obama’s advisers are not embracing the more disputed Bush contention that the president has inherent power under the Constitution to detain terrorism suspects indefinitely regardless of Congress.

The Justice Department said in a statement Wednesday night that “the administration would rely on authority already provided by Congressâ€

[frigidmagi]

I would prefer he bite the bullet and declare them POWs. Note that would mean pretty much the same thing however. You don't put POW's on trial (legally from what I understand you can, but traditionally speaking it's not done at least not until after the war) and you hold them until end of conflict.

Also note this is in regards to 50 men. Alot less then were held in Gitmo when Obama was elected. Odds are these are the hard cases, which are known to be responsible for attacking various personae they come into contact with.

For me at least there's a sticky matter of jurisdiction. Bluntly speaking a man who was a member of Al-Qeada in Afghanistan has not broken any US laws. He can't. He isn't a US citizen (therefore not subject to US laws) nor did he live on US territory and in more then a few cases he didn't take part in actions against the US. He is a member of a organization engaged in warfare against the US, but that's not illegal and we can't try people for that. Osama Bin Lauden being guilty of planning and ordering attacks on US citizens from the mid 90s to the current day. Murder is murder and international law is clear on our right to try him for that.

Plainly speaking outside of clear cases, I question the right of the US Justice Department to try foreign citizens on the sole basis of their affiliation.

[Cpl Kendall]

Well if we're sticking to laws regarding POW's then these guys don't fit the bill. Their criminals and are supposed to be detained until such time as the country their crimes took place in is capable of trying them.

So that means the mooks caught in Afghanistan should be handed over to them to be tried. Good luck with that.

[frigidmagi]

Afghanistan is not capable of holding them at this time. Also keep in mind a good number of them likely did not break any laws in Afghanistan either, such as they were at the time. Most of them committed their actions outside of Afghan and used it has a homebase/training center. Unless they were members of the Taiban Arab brigade under command of Al-Qeada members. At which case I'm sure there's a war crime they've done somewhere.

[Cpl Kendall]

Afghanistan is not capable of holding them at this time. Also keep in mind a good number of them likely did not break any laws in Afghanistan either, such as they were at the time. Most of them committed their actions outside of Afghan and used it has a homebase/training center. Unless they were members of the Taiban Arab brigade under command of Al-Qeada members. At which case I'm sure there's a war crime they've done somewhere.

Yeah Afghanistan isn't fit to prosecute squat right now. I'm not sure about the laws at the time, most of the current ones aren't all that different and they seem to be doing their damnedest to bring back the worst ones.

But the legalities really don't matter anymore, there's no way these guys are going to see the light of day unless the Pres at the time wants to be lynched.