One of the very few commendable steps taken by the Obama administration toward reversing the Bush/Cheney Constitution/Terrorism template was the DOJ's decision to try the five accused 9/11 defendants in a civilian court (just as the rest of the civilized world does with Terrorists). But ever since that was announced, Obama officials have been clearly signaling that they intend to reverse that decision in response to the GOP's political attacks (while Rahm Emanuel has been busy making clear he disagreed with Holder's choice), and a new story in The Washington Post this morning provides the clearest evidence yet that this will happen.
The WP: Obama close to reversing Holder on civilian trials
[that link is from the original article. There are many more that I didn't transcribe.]
Go there, read, come back. I'm tired of expending lots of effort trying to make people who don't want to see things aware of what's going on.
Whether Obama is just a punk, as some of his erstwhile supporters seem to think, or he's the con man I've always suspected, he's not doing anything at this point that the Bush Administration wouldn't have done on this issue. If anything, Obama's record is worse.
That Glenn Greenwald article I quoted is a clear indication of how the Obama Administration has gradually ceded what few areas it had shown improvement in to the shrill opportunists, who seem to dominate the human rights debate on television and other mass media these days, and the quivering fools who agree with them. As David Dayen wrote today:
You can compromise on funding this or that domestic policy. But here we have a compromise on the rule of law, an ethical impossibility. The Cheney family talked enough trash and questioned enough patriotism to actually get the President to potentially step away from the criminal justice system? We’re running trials based on polls now?
Of course, like most things, Obama comes to this debate having already compromised. His Justice Department selected trial venues – or the lack thereof – based on the admissible evidence available on the suspect. The A tier (with clearly enough evidence to convict) got a criminal trial, the B tier (with less evidence) a military commission, the C tier (not enough evidence) got to stay at Guantanamo or Guantanamo North or wherever indefinitely. It’s hard to talk about principles and justice when you’ve already sold it out.
Advisers to Recommend Trying KSM in Military Commissions
So, tell me again how happy you are to have a President who speaks in complete sentences.
If there were real justice for past misdeeds by American Presidents, he'd end up in the dock next to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney somewhere.
2 comments:
Cujo - We'll grant Obama (and Emmanuel) this much. They are very clever political operatives. Turtle-faced (Eric) Holder is playing the role of "Crash Test Dummy"(!) Holder's role is to proffer the concept of civilian criminal trials to not only the American people, but above all to the Washigton/NY National Security Establishment. Now, we have the reply of the howling Lynch Mob, ninnies who can do little beyond misconstrue the 2nd Amendment. So, Obama who thinks moral courage is an oxymoron, is going to blame all of this on Eric Holder. Smart politics Cujo, but another Obama "cave-in" Best - JB
They're good at taking care of themselves, not so good at getting anything useful done or building a political organization. They're also pretty unscrupulous, a trait that makes success more likely in politics.
The security "establishment" is a problem, mostly because people take what it says about issues like this too seriously. It's supposed to see threats, and it will find them, since there are always threats of some sort. It will, of course, also be interested preserving itself, which is added motivation to find threats. Wise leaders would know when to just listen to what they say and press on. We haven't had wise leaders in a while.
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