Obama keeps tribunals, draws ire

[Forkboy]

WASHINGTON - President Obama's decision to overhaul and restart the Bush administration's military tribunals for Guantanamo Bay terrorism detainees won support from congressional Republicans yesterday, but deepened his estrangement from the liberal activists who helped sweep him into office.

In a statement yesterday, Obama said he was reviving the tribunals for a small number of the 241 Guantanamo inmates because the commissions "are appropriate for trying enemies who violate the laws of war, provided that they are properly structured and administered."

The White House asserted that Obama was not embracing the Bush system because he was adding significant legal protections for detainees, such as not allowing statements obtained through waterboarding and other extreme interrogation tactics. Like Bush, Obama is trying to walk a fine line between adhering to the rule of law and ensuring that dangerous, avowed enemies of the United States remain behind bars.

"This is the best way to protect our country, while upholding our deeply held values," said Obama, a former constitutional law professor.

But civil liberties groups, among his staunchest allies on the political left, vowed to fight the move and lashed out at the president, accusing him of turning his back on his own ideals and reneging on another campaign promise. They also questioned whether, after just four months in office, Obama is caving in to Republicans who have openly challenged him on the issue of national security.

"It's disturbing," said Tom Andrews of Win Without War, a coalition of groups opposed to the US troop presence in Iraq. "It's not just one episode, it's a clear trend that's emerging."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/05/16/obama_keeps_tribunals_draws_ire/

[LooseWilly]

1. Are we really so afraid of the terrorist boogeymen?...

... That we're willing to endorse, we the "Public", denying any semblance of rights to "the scary badguys"?

I mean, sure, some of them are probably legitimately terrorists. Or at least conspirators/aiders/abetters... but is it really all that different from any other criminal killer that we, the Public, might feed into the legal system?
Am I the only one who believes that the criminally accused should be released if the "authorities" abuse them in order to get evidence against them?
Am I the only one with the courage to extend the same rights to the terroristy-accused?

Is this nation really so wholly terrified of terrorists, even individual terrorists, that they will invent special rules for them over and above those we apply to serial killers?

I'd really like to know. How completely has the terror of the terrorists been implanted in the American Psyche? Hell, if we're really that terrified of terrorists... haven't they won?

Keeping the tribunal system... it's like admitting that we're nigh unto pissing ourselves with fear at the thought of even just one of those accused assholes getting out from behind bars...