Obama's Twisted New Justice System

[anthonybpugh]

If you really think about the argument Obama made yesterday -- when he described the five categories of detainees and the procedures to which each will be subjected -- it becomes manifest just how profound a violation of Western conceptions of justice this is.  What Obama is saying is this:  we'll give real trials only to those detainees we know in advance we will convict.  For those we don't think we can convict in a real court, we'll get convictions in the military commissions I'm creating.  For those we can't convict even in my military commissions, we'll just imprison them anyway with no charges ("preventively detain" them).
Giving trials to people only when you know for sure, in advance, that you'll get convictions is not due process.  Those are called "show trials."  In a healthy system of justice, the Government gives everyone it wants to imprison a trial and then imprisons only those whom it can convict.  The process is constant (trials), and the outcome varies (convictions or acquittals).

Obama is saying the opposite:  in his scheme, it is the outcome that is constant (everyone ends up imprisoned), while the process varies and is determined by the Government (trials for some; military commissions for others; indefinite detention for the rest).  The Government picks and chooses which process you get in order to ensure that it always wins.  A more warped "system of justice" is hard to imagine.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/05/22/preventive_detention/

[Bill St. Clair]

Yep. The reason juries were created was to put a check on the king's power to imprison people for no good reason. King Obama won't have that. Yes We can imprison whoever We decide is dangerous.

[Ogre]

Or even people the government just doesn't like... like those who have video cameras in the wrong place.

[Lloyd Danforth]

Isn't this just a continuation of Bush?

[D Stewart]

It seems to me that his continued desire to move these folks to the US is a ploy to seek passage of new legislation which would set aside habeas corpus for some class of "extremist terrorists" (we simply can't call them "prisoners of war", of course not).  And then he would have the process in place ready and waiting to use on any other revolting extremists... like, say, Republicans or 9/12-ers or anyone who looks at him squinty.

[John Edward Mercier]

Did Congress actually declare war on the Taliban?
Remember there was no UN Security Agreement to be upheld... nor did Afghanistan have an extradition treaty with the US to my knowledge.