Obama Administration: Hey, Um, You Know, Um, Maybe We'll Do Those Military Commission Things After All

The most in over its head administration continues to realize the world is a wee bit more challenging than a campaign of just words (caution...link to NY Times).

Officials said the first public moves could come as soon as next week, perhaps in filings to military judges at the United States naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, outlining an administration plan to amend the Bush administration’s system to provide more legal protections for terrorism suspects.

Continuing the military commissions in any form would probably prompt sharp criticism from human rights groups as well as some of Mr. Obama’s political allies because the troubled system became an emblem of the effort to use Guantánamo to avoid the American legal system.

Officials who work on the Guantánamo issue say administration lawyers have become concerned that they would face significant obstacles to trying some terrorism suspects in federal courts. Judges might make it difficult to prosecute detainees who were subjected to brutal treatment or for prosecutors to use hearsay evidence gathered by intelligence agencies.

...“The more they look at it,” said one official, “the more commissions don’t look as bad as they did on Jan. 20.”

You don't say?

I'm sure the JurnoList is working overtime this weekend to pump out talking points to the usual suspects about how this isn't a major backslide. When they are done with it this will be a smart and tough new policy only someone as intellectually nimble and unflappable as Obama could develop.

posted by DrewM. at 10:43 AM

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