NYT Editorial: Photographs and Kangaroo Courts

[struggle4progress]

Published: May 16, 2009

... Mr. Obama was wrong when he flip-flopped and decided to resist orders by two federal courts to release the photos. We fear he is showing the same lack of resolve when it comes to Mr. Bush’s kangaroo courts — the tribunals at Guantánamo that Mr. Obama denounced passionately and frequently during the 2008 campaign ...

We do not object to convening military tribunals to judge and punish crimes committed in war. That is a well-established part of American and international military justice. The problem is that these tribunals, unlike traditional ones, did not just cover prisoners captured on the battlefield. They covered anyone whom Mr. Bush declared beyond the reach of law with the preposterous claim that the whole world is now a field of battle.

Indeed, most Guantánamo prisoners facing the tribunals were captured far from any real battlefield, including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of 9/11, and other top terrorism suspects.

These prisoners should be tried in civilian criminal courts under federal antiterrorism statutes. We are pleased that Mr. Obama envisions doing that in some cases. Republicans like to mock the notion of trying terrorists as criminals, but that is what they are. Treating them as warriors not only demeans civilian and military justice, but it gives terrorists the martyrdom they crave ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/opinion/17sun1.html

[Tutankhamun]

1. This is a great editorial. My compliments to the NYT Editorial Board for agreeing to this one.

Kudos to whoever actually wrote it, too.

[aquart]

2. "top generals"

Aren't these the people who stayed when self-respecting law-abiding military men decided to retire in droves to get away from Murderous George? Aren't these men the moral dregs of our military?

[Old Hank]

3. k & r

[pacalo]

4. It's the last paragraph that grabbed me...

Mr. Obama was elected in part because of his promises to correct these lawless policies. He must create clear rules to deal with prisoners. And there must be a full accounting of what went so horribly wrong and how. Otherwise, Mr. Obama risks turning Mr. Bush’s mistakes into his own or, in the case of the photographs, turning Mr. Bush’s cover-up into his own. More important, he risks missing the chance to make sure the misdeeds and horrors of the Bush years are never repeated.

And this overriding of the justice system just screamed "same old disregard for the law" when I read it:

But that does not change the fact that Mr. Obama was wrong when he flip-flopped and decided to resist orders by two federal courts to release the photos.

The president is not a king; his office is separate from the justice system. By law, it's his duty to comply.

[Senator]

5. Exactly -- "it's his duty to comply."

It's not his option to be "banning" anything.

That is simply arrogating to himself the power to "unban" the same.

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