Trying to Tie Obama's Hands on Gitmo

[DeepModem Mom]

TIME: Trying to Tie Obama's Hands on Gitmo
By Adam Zagorin / Washington Monday, Dec. 08, 2008

Of all President-elect Barack Obama's early priorities, few have drawn more attention than his pledge to shut down the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay. Closing Gitmo will mean release for many of the facility's 225 detainees, while the rest will face trial on terrorism charges.

But closing Gitmo is the relatively easy part. Far more complex will be what Obama decides to do about Guantanamo's so-called "military commissions" — the Bush administration's controversial legal apparatus for judging accused terrorists. Both the Supreme Court and other federal courts have repeatedly found fault with the commissions, which critics say are show trials unworthy of American jurisprudence....

(T)here are plenty of...defendants who could be tried under Guantanamo's unique legal process. And carrying the banner for that process is Brig. Gen. Thomas W. Hartmann, 53, a lawyer and Air Force reservist who as the top legal adviser and chief administrator of the trials, has managed to put 17 complex war crimes cases on the docket in less than 18 months. Now, Obama's promise to shutter the facility seems to have spurred Hartmann to even greater activity. Motions and hearings are currently underway in at least half a dozen cases, and this week Gitmo authorities will host an emotional, made-for-TV moment: the first-ever visit to the trials by families of the victims of Sept. 11. Meanwhile, Hartmann's office confirms that more terrorism trials will be announced sometime before Obama's inauguration.

After years during which prisoners were held without trial, the question is whether this surge in prosecutions and publicity is a case of due process finally starting to work — or a hurried effort designed to tie Obama's hands as he tries to shut the facility. Once they are under way, Obama could find it politically and legally difficult to stop the controversial proceedings or shift them out of Guantanamo. "All this activity, and an expanding list of trials that cannot possibly conclude before the next President takes office is irresponsible," says Adam Schiff, a California Democrat and member of both the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees. Saying he has conferred with, but does not speak for Obama's transition team, Schiff adds: "Attempts to limit the next President's options at Guantanamo are not likely to succeed."

Behind the scenes, Obama's team is struggling to get a handle on Hartmann's plans for bringing the Gitmo suspects to justice....

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1865087,00.html?xid=site-cnn-partner

[Demeter]

1. Justice Denied Is Justice Delayed Indefinitely

and Justice made illegal under Bush's "special" laws. Wish someone would subject BushCo to these "special" laws and the extraordinary renditions that accompanied them.