Obama needs to make clean break on detainee issues (Tampa Bay Times editorial)

[struggle4progress]

As a candidate, Barack Obama rejected the Bush administration's approach to trying terror suspects in military commissions. As president, he now says military tribunals will be used to try some terror suspects, with some added due process protections. Early on in his administration, he said he would not block the release of photographs of detainee abuse at American military hands. Now Obama is blocking their publication after pressure from the military.

These policy shifts are particularly disappointing coming from a president who clearly understands how damaging Bush's torture policies and kangaroo tribunals were to America's moral authority and international standing. Obama campaigned on a promise of reversing that damage through transparency, accountability and the rule of law. Now he has to make good on those promises, and these are steps backward ...

Obama campaigned on a promise to make a clean break with Bush administration policies on detainee treatment. That means making public the pictures that show the results of encouraging abuse of prisoners. That also means trying terror suspects under the standards of due process that have defined us as a nation.

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/article1002101.ece