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Justice Withdraws 'Enemy Combatant' Definition For Gitmo Detainees
In a move that represents both a formality and a historic gesture, the Obama administration has announced that it's withdrawing the designation of "enemy combatant" for Guantanamo detainees. The Bush administration had drawn widespread criticism for its use of that designation, which allowed it to deny detainees rights they otherwise would have been entitled to.
In a press release, the Justice Department said it was submitting a new standard to hold detainees at Gitmo. Rather than relying on the president's authority as commander-in-chief, the department explained, the new standard "draws on the international laws of war to inform the statutory authority conferred by Congress."
It also said that the governent is conducting a review of detainee detention policy which could lead to "further refinements."
President Obama has already announced this intention to close Gitmo within the year. In a sense, today's announcement is an equally important step in winding down the "War On Terror" concept that the Bush administration announced, and shifting to an approach that sees the fight against terrorism as an effort to be conducted within the bounds of international and domestic law.
In other words: change we can believe in.
Josh
Zachary
CHECK, your move Cheney!
March 13, 2009 5:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
THIS IS EXCELLENT NEWS
FOR DICK CHENEY!
March 13, 2009 5:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
On a less snarky note: Hallelujah! THIS is what we voted for.
March 13, 2009 5:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
It does sound good.
March 14, 2009 4:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Holy sh*t somebody found that damn document that we lost for 8 years called the constitution. Where in the hell was it? Also, holy smoke the geneva conventions were located as well? This is astounding. There are laws and a government that enforces the law and abides by it. What a concept. Pinch me, I must be dreaming.
March 13, 2009 6:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
The president still has the authority to designate a person an enemy and lock that person away without rights. It doesn't matter what word is used to define the prisoner--he's still a dude trying to sleep on concrete without the right to a trial or a phone call.
This was the straw for me, Obama. Unless I see Karl Rove rotting in jail, I'm not giving my time, money, or vote in 2012.
March 14, 2009 2:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
He's the president, not a prosecutor.
March 14, 2009 2:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama may not be a prosecuter, but he appoints the prosecutor in chief - the Attorney General.
Obama has already said he wants to look ahead and ignore all that has happened in the last 8 years.
It is up to "We the People" to keep his feet to the flames and demand an accounting for the crimes of the Bush Administration.
.
March 15, 2009 11:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
I know you were writing on deadline, Zach, but you've clearly been PR'd. The redesignation is a cosmetic tweak that fails to repudiate the worst aspects of the Bush administration's constitutional overreach.
March 14, 2009 8:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
I hope not but Obama appears to have a pattern of announcing a revocation of a Bush misdeed and then instituting a lesser version of the same thing: I'm closing GITMO -- um, by the way, does any one have an idea of where I can stash the prisoners now? Now I'm going to limit the definition of 'enemy combatant' by requiring substantial aid but I as the Prez will still able to make the designation of my say so alone.
March 14, 2009 9:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
In my thinking, it's now up to Congress to write a law that anyone in our power is bound by our laws and rights (i.e. habeus corpus, speedy trial, jury, etc). It doesn't have to come from Obama. And, frankly, any president (even Obama) is loathe to part with a power that Congress has ceded it (even if by inaction). Why wait for Obama to do the right thing when the right thing can be made into law?
March 14, 2009 4:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Too true. See bmaz' post at Emptywheel today.
Obama Becomes Bush As We Wait For Walker’s Ruling
March 14, 2009 7:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Couldn't agree more. The Obama Administration's focus on Gitmo and ONLY Gitmo is practically scary, and amounts to little more than PR. Any work towards dismantling the insane "illegal enemy combatant" jurisprudence of the Bush years is fine by me, but we've gotta remember that the Obama Admin has explicitly stated that they're going to keep using that legal category to define the detainees at Bagram and other foreign prisons – and thus hold them in secrecy, without review or trial.
I certainly hope we all expected a lot more from them than this.
March 15, 2009 1:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
This also allows Obama to move the detainees at Gitmo to Bagram and to continue their incarceration without charges or trial.
Obama is finally realizing that innocent people who are detained and tortured for year after year will eventually become terrorists.
He is also finding out that there is no chain of evidence detailing why these people were detained in the first place. There have been reports that Afghanis provided the names of "terrorists" to the US forces in return for up to $5,000 in cash. Some of those people so designated as "terrorists" were just people who were disliked, were hated, or were rivals of the people who collected money for naming them as "terrorists" to the US forces. The only evidence that they were "terrorists" was the word of the snitch who must remain anonymous as a matter of US national security. Bull. They must remain anonymous only for their own protection.
The "Military Commissions" established by the Bush Administration were designed solely to get around this lack of any evidence against these detainees. That is also why the government is fighting so hard to keep them out of the mainstream American justice system.
March 16, 2009 10:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
I weep for you Obama... you could have been a contender.
March 14, 2009 5:56 PM | Reply | Permalink