Justice task force recommends about 50 Guantanamo detainees be held indefinitely

[Irish_shark]

Source: Washington Post

By Peter Finn
Friday, January 22, 2010; A01

A Justice Department-led task force has concluded that nearly 50 of the 196 detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should be held indefinitely without trial under the laws of war, according to Obama administration officials.

The task force's findings represent the first time that the administration has clarified how many detainees it considers too dangerous to release but unprosecutable because officials fear trials could compromise intelligence-gathering and because detainees could challenge evidence obtained through coercion.

Human rights advocates have bemoaned the administration's failure to fulfill President Obama's promise last January to close the Guantanamo Bay facility within a year as well as its reliance on indefinite detention, a mechanism devised during George W. Bush's administration that they deem unconstitutional.

"There is no statutory regime in America that allows us to hold people without charge or trial indefinitely," said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/21/AR2010012104936_pf.html

[ShortnFiery]

1. They need to take "Justice" out of their Task Force Name. eom

[tblue]

2. Is this the Week from Hell?

Don't know how much more outrage I can take.

[dipsydoodle]

3. Well I do hope

that USA understands that same rules may apply to them wherever they use non regular forces aka combatants.

[newfie11]

8. Damn right N/T

[D-Lee]

4. So, do we know when "the war" will be over -- and "war prisoners" released?

There definitely is an end to war prisoner detention ... the end of "the war."

And when will THAT be?

[Downwinder]

9. The US refuses to negotiate a Peace Treaty to end the Korean War. n/t

[placton]

5. Thanks for the change, Mr. President. sigh n/t

[struggle4progress]

55. Be sure to check out Public Law 111-32 from last June, which forbids releasing

Guantanamo detainees in the US or bringing them to the US for any purpose other than trial. The Bush Administration left us a real headache: what can you do with people who you can't convict because they were abused in custody, if Congress insists that you can't bring them to the US except to try them and that you cannot release them here?

[Downwinder]

6. Does this mean , we can hold you for ever so nobody will know

we have a new radar gun to catch speeders, and we don't even have to show that you were speeding? Or we illegally tapped your phone so we will lock you up indefinitely so nobody will know?

Sounds far out. Look at nursing home commitments, life sentence with no parole hearings.

[Lerkfish]

7. its almost like changiness and hopiness!

but really its just more of the same-iness

[Mari333]

58. +100000

[gratuitous]

10. What did we fight World War II about?

And what was that whole Cold War thing about? We're supposed to be the nation that observes the rule of law, fights against indefinite incarceration without charge or trial, and secures the blessings of freedom and liberty. Why hasn't the military, those brave men and women fightin' for our freedom, invaded Guantanamo?

I'm beginning to think the whole line of patriotic mouthings about the United States is little more than a bunch of hooey. But that can't be right, can it?

[kpete]

11. (Gitmo) Detainees Will Still Be Held, but Not Tried, (Obama) Official Says

Source: New York Times

Detainees Will Still Be Held, but Not Tried, Official Says

By CHARLIE SAVAGE
Published: January 22, 2010

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has decided to continue to imprison without trials nearly 50 detainees at the Guantánamo Bay military prison in Cuba because a high-level task force has concluded that they are too difficult to prosecute but too dangerous to release, an administration official said on Thursday.

However, the administration has decided that nearly 40 other detainees should be prosecuted for terrorism or related war crimes. And the remaining prisoners, about 110 men, should be repatriated or transferred to other countries for possible release, the official said, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the numbers.

There are just under 200 detainees left at the detention center.

President Obama established the task force shortly after his inauguration last year as part of his administration’s effort to deal with the detainee issues left behind by the Bush administration. It was facing a deadline of Friday to complete its work.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/us/22gitmo.html?hpw

[Hosnon]

12. Well that's convenient: too difficult to prosecute but too dangerous to release.

We're getting a glimpse of what our justice system would look like without our Constitution.

Try or release.

[area51]

21. +1 (n/t)

[GodlessBiker]

25. Where getting a glimpse of what justice is like with our Constitution.

[MessiahRp]

33. Not to mention the longer we keep them there, the more dangerous they will likely get

Even those who were definitely not terrorists will grow a pretty solid anti-American sentiment and a thirst for revenge when put through this sort of detention/treatment for a long period of time.

Our every action be it Gitmo or continued military presence in Iraq/Afghanistan spawns new generations of terrorists looking for revenge. It's not even making us safer for now aside from the long term effect this is going to have.

Rp

[EFerrari]

44. The danger DoJ is talking about is probably legal danger to war criminals

not danger to us, anyway.

[mbperrin]

40. Well said. Try or release! nt

[Jefferson23]

13. This has been one hell of a month so far, shit!

[Soylent Brice]

14. K&R

[ShortnFiery]

15. American Justice? I'm ashamed and believe our Founders did NOT intend for THIS.

[mike_c]

16. this is the death knell for constitutional liberties in the U.S....

The Obama/Cheney/Bush administration has decided to simply ignore the U.S. Constitution. You know, that inconvenient document with its Sixth Amendment guaranteeing the right to a speedy trial. Arguments that such rights apply only to U.S. citizens, or only to some subset of citizens are a mockery of the principles Americans supposedly stand for-- civil rights are meaningless if the state can capriciously withhold them without due process.

[thesquanderer]

31. Rights of non-citizens

re: "Arguments that such rights apply only to U.S. citizens, or only to some subset of citizens are a mockery of the principles Americans supposedly stand for"

You're absolutely right. The Constitution guarantees certain rights for citizens, not because we felt these rights should only be for citizens, but rather because those were the only people to whom the government had the *ability* to guarantee these rights. To the extent that we can provide rights for others, we should... because the rights are based on what we feel people deserve based on being human beings, not what they deserve by virtue of where they happened to be born.

[liberation]

36. The correct context of the constitution regarding non-citizens...

... it is not that the rights listed there just apply to American citizens. But that the constitution, and all its amendments esp. the bill of rights, is also a very specific list of the LIMITATIONS of the US Government. Especially regarding what our government can or can not do in American soil, i.e. our god damned country.

If these detainees are not under military law (and as such exempt from certain parts of the Geneva Convention) then fine, then it means they are under US Civil law, and the limits stated in our constitution on what the US Government can do apply. So how they like them apples now? Every single one of these detentions are illegal for the US Government to perform, lest call a spade a spade.

[Art_from_Ark]

56. So much for electing a "Constitutional scholar" President

Who did he study under? John Yoo?

[katandmoon]

17. Way to GO, Obushma!

[Hell Hath No Fury]

18. "Too dificult to prosecute" --

Means the "evidence" was beaten out of them and the case was compromised. :mad:

Fuck. This. Shit.

[Hosnon]

39. Exactly - more broadly that there is no admissable evidence.

Go Team America!

[PSPS]

19. Bush's third term

[FiveGoodMen]

48. Yup.

By now, I'm pretty sure that the pukes realized they'd never win -- or be able to steal -- another election so they found someone who would do their bidding despite the 'D' label.

That way, nothing derails their agenda and before long an even angrier public puts a puke majority back in charge.

Obama looks more and more like a willing co-conspirator.

[The Stranger]

20. “Justice denied anywhere diminishes justice everywhere.” -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

[Stumbler]

22. .

Good to see Obama's taking the lesson from MA's election to heart. :sarcasm:
Ignore your base of "radicals" who demand he uphold liberty, instead go conservative!

[Solly Mack]

23. "too difficult to prosecute"

Let's pretend the best way to deal with the war crimes of the US government is by imprisoning the victims of America's torture until death silences their tongue.

What's even the point of America anymore?

[bluestateguy]

24. Good precedent to set for radio talk show hosts who get a little to uppity

nt

[Mari333]

26. and the fascist regime continues, unabated. knr

[Downwinder]

27. "Rule of Law" third world style. or maybe I have that reversed.

Should it be third world "Rule of Law," US style.

[earcandle]

28. That is against the law and criminally undermines our constitution.

We are a dictatorship if Obama can declare such things and get
away with this.

No one can declare people too dangerous to be released if they
committed no crimes. 

[hughee99]

29. I thought the detention camp at Gitmo was closed?

I remember he signed a bill exactly 1 year ago today. A lot of people seemed excited that finally a man of integrity was in the white house, and he wasn't going to let this travesty of justice continue (for more than one more year).

It's now a year later and they still have 200 people? And not just 200 people, but 200 people that they have no plans to prosecute OR release?

[Tace]

30. I Don't Know International Law, But These Seem Like War Crimes

I'll be surprised if it is OK to imprison people indefinitely without trial under international law.

[liberation]

38. The detention of people without the pressing of charges against them is most definitively not

sanctioned/supported/allowed under international law.

The proper short-hand term for what these detainees are defined under international law is a false imprisonment, more known as a "kidnaping."

[last1standing]

32. Would you vote for someone who holds prisoners without trial?

If we as a people are too afraid to uphold the Constitution, then there is no Constitution.

The United States of America has failed because there is no one left who believes in it.

[pberq]

34. this is "change"???

More of the same - shredding the Constitution

[Roland99]

35. So much for closing down Guantanamo. YABCP

Yet
Another
Broken
Campaign
Promise

[n2doc]

37. Yes We Can

[OnyxCollie]

41. Wow. I didn't know Gerald Scarfe was still alive.

I haven't seen anything from him in years.

Too bad the US is providing him inspiration.

[EFerrari]

42. WTF? That's not justice.

[OnyxCollie]

43. K&R. nt

[crim son]

45. It's like the shrub never left office. Goddamn. n/t

[dixiegrrrrl]

46. Guantanamo is NOT a detention center, the article is wrong.

It is a gulag.

Number 2 of the 1- steps of Fascism:

2. Create a gulag

Once you have got everyone scared, the next step is to create a prison system outside the rule of law (as Bush put it, he wanted the American detention center at Guantánamo Bay to be situated in legal "outer space") - where torture takes place.

At first, the people who are sent there are seen by citizens as outsiders: troublemakers, spies, "enemies of the people" or "criminals". Initially, citizens tend to support the secret prison system; it makes them feel safer and they do not identify with the prisoners. But soon enough, civil society leaders - opposition members, labour activists, clergy and journalists - are arrested and sent there as well.

This process took place in fascist shifts or anti-democracy crackdowns ranging from Italy and Germany in the 1920s and 1930s to the Latin American coups of the 1970s and beyond. It is standard practice for closing down an open society or crushing a pro-democracy uprising.

With its jails in Iraq and Afghanistan, and, of course, Guantánamo in Cuba, where detainees are abused, and kept indefinitely without trial and without access to the due process of the law, America certainly has its gulag now. We still have secret CIA "black site" prisons throughout the world, which are used to incarcerate people who have been seized off the street.

Gulags in history tend to metastasize, becoming ever larger and more secretive, ever more deadly and formalized. We know from first-hand accounts, photographs, videos and government documents that people, innocent and guilty, have been tortured in the US-run prisons we are aware of and those we can't investigate adequately.

Most Americans don't understand yet that the destruction of the rule of law at Guantánamo set a dangerous precedent for them, too.

By the way, the establishment of military tribunals that deny prisoners due process tends to come early on in a fascist shift. Mussolini and Stalin set up such tribunals. On April 24 1934, the Nazis, too, set up the People's Court, which also bypassed the judicial system: prisoners were held indefinitely, often in isolation, and tortured, without being charged with offenses, and were subjected to show trials. Eventually, the Special Courts became a parallel system that put pressure on the regular courts to abandon the rule of law in favor of Nazi ideology when making decisions.

[winyanstaz]

47. This is total bullshit....what happened to the laws we used to uphold?

They are hiding them for reasons alright.
We might find out that they know who did 9-11..we might find out that they are innocent people..we might find out it was all a big fat lie.
We will never know why they are even held for sure without a trial.
It is not "closing" a prison if you only move the prisoners to another prison. That is called Moving a prison..not closing.

[Xenotime]

49. What happened to his promise about closeing Gitmo?!

[Doctor_J]

50. I want all of my time and money back from 2008

sickening.

[fascisthunter]

51. veeeeee kan do anyzing ve vant!

protekting die Homelandt, ja...

[Smashcut]

52. So...there were never really any plans to shut down Guantanamo, were there.

[Snazzy]

53. Executive Order 13492, January 22, 2009

Sec. 3 Closure of Detention Facilities at Guantánamo. The detention facilities at Guantánamo for individuals covered by this order shall be closed as soon as practicable, and no later than 1 year from the date of this order. If any individuals covered by this order remain in detention at Guantánamo at the time of closure of those detention facilities, they shall be returned to their home country, released, transferred to a third country, or transferred to another United States detention facility in a manner consistent with law and the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States.

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Executive_Order_13492
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/closureofguantanamodetentionfacilities/

Obama Administration Misses Deadline To Close Guantánamo
January 22, 2010

ACLU Urges Closure Of Prison And End To Indefinite Detention

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
...

NEW YORK – The Obama administration missed the deadline today to close the prison at Guantánamo Bay. On his second full day in office, President Obama signed an executive order to close the prison within a year. Today, the date that the prison was to have been closed, the facility remains open.

According to news reports today, the administration has decided to continue to detain without trial nearly 50 of the 198 Guantánamo prisoners because a presidential task force concluded that "they are too difficult to prosecute but too dangerous to release." The American Civil Liberties Union disputes that any significant category of such detainees exists, and renews its call for the closure of the prison and an end to the illegal policy of indefinite detention without charge or trial.

...

http://www.aclu.org/national-security/obama-administration-misses-deadline-close-guantanamo

[Snazzy]

54. Also don't miss Harpers: The Guantánamo “Suicides”: A Camp Delta sergeant blows the whistle

http://harpers.org/archive/2010/01/hbc-90006368

[panzerfaust]

57. 1679: Habeas Corpus Act of Parliament

Being "An Act for the better securing the Liberty of the Subject, and for Prevention of Imprisonment beyond the Seas"

Burning of Parliament, 1834 (and 2010)