In a major reversal, The White House announced Friday it would use military tribunals to prosecute some terror suspects.  President Obama had repeatedly asserted throughout his 2008 Presidential campaign that the tribunals were unnecessary for the detainees of the Guantanamo Bay Naval Facility in Cuba, and that such cases could be handled within the Federal Court system.  The administration stressed that changes would be made to the military tribunal system such as disallowing evidence obtained through torture, making hearsay inadmissible and allowing detainees greater say over what counsel represents them, to make way for fairer procedures.

This is the most disheartening news to come out of the Obama administration so far.  Politically, it makes plenty of sense for The White House, which in our two party system will not lose its political base of Democrats who have nowhere else to turn, but will still be able to counter charges from the hawkish Republican opposition that it held tough on terrorism.  But the ethics behind this misguided decision are all wrong.  I certainly trust the tribunals of an Obama administration more than the kangaroo courts of Dick Cheney, but that doesn’t make it right to deny these suspects their day in a Federal court.  My guess is that in a number of suspect’s cases the Obama administration came to the same conclusion as that of George W. Bush, that it couldn’t get convictions under Federal law, but was still unwilling to release the prisoners.  Let’s hope this disturbing trend of following Bush policies doesn’t continue.

LINKS:

BBC: Anger at Obama Guantanamo ruling

Daily Telegraph: Change we can’t believe in: Obama, torture and Guantánamo

CBS News: Critics Call Obama’s Tribunals “Bush Lite”