From a post on Hot Air.
How about that Hope and Change? Working out for ya?
Looks like reshuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic to me.
Quote:
First broken a few hours ago by WaPo, now confirmed by the AP, a little Friday evening care package from The One while the
media's busy obsessing over Jacko and cap 'n trade.
Do bear in mind that, contrary to leftist talking points, it's not just the fact that some of the evidence against these turds was obtained through
"torture" that makes them untriable in regular courts. Other evidence is either classified or was obtained from foreign intel - points that WaPo,
to its credit, acknowledges but which our nutroots superiors tend to gloss over.
Quote: Such an order would embrace claims by former president George W. Bush that certain people can be detained without trial for long periods under the laws
of war. Obama advisers are concerned that bypassing Congress could place the president on weaker footing before the courts and anger key supporters, the
officials said…
Some of Obama's top legal advisers, along with a handful of influential Republican and Democratic lawmakers, have pushed for the creation of a
"national security court" to supervise the incarceration of detainees deemed too dangerous to release but who cannot be charged or tried.
But the three senior government officials said the White House has turned away from that option, at least for now, because legislation establishing a
special court would be both difficult to pass and likely to fracture Obama's own party…
"Legislation could kill Obama's plans," said one government official involved. The official said an executive order could be the best
option for the president at this juncture. Under one White House draft that was being discussed earlier this month, according to administration officials,
detainees would be imprisoned at a military facility on U.S. soil but their ongoing detention would be subject to annual presidential review. U.S. citizens
would not be held in the system…
One administration official said future transfers to the United States for long-term detention would be rare. Al-Qaeda operatives captured on the
battlefield, which the official defined as Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and possibly the Horn of Africa, would be held in battlefield
facilities.
Thank goodness future captives will be spared the military-run horror that is Gitmo for the cushy pleasure palaces that are military-run battlefield
prisons. We've known this was in the works for months now, but I confess, I'm still
surprised that Obama's willing to bypass Congress. It makes sense politically, I guess - a left vs. center battle on national security in the House and
Senate is a headache he doesn't need right now - but (a) taking sole responsibility via an executive order pits him squarely against the ACLU crowd and
opens him up to charges of being too Bush-like and (b) the constitutionality of indefinite detention will be jeopardized by not having congressional backing
per Justice Jackson's analysis in Youngstown v. Sawyer. Although, who
knows - maybe that's The One's plan. By putting himself on the worst possible legal footing, he increases the chances of the Supreme Court declaring
the program unconstitutional, which in turn will put pressure on Congress to bless it, thereby giving him political cover. Bottom line: No matter how much
the left pouts, Barry O's not risking a second term on letting questionable jihadis go until some other branch of government makes him.
How about that Hope and Change? Working out for ya?
Looks like reshuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic to me.