I really wish the Reactionary Screamers on DU would get informed before launching into another hissy fit.
Bringing these people to trial is part of the process of closing Gitmo. And some of the people at Gitmo weren't just civilians caught up in Bush's crazy.Associated Press
Obama revives tribunals for Gitmo detainees
By LARA JAKES , 05.15.09, 01:30 PM EDT
President Barack Obama says he is restarting military tribunals for a
small number of terrorist suspects at Guantanamo though with several new legal protections for defendants.Obama said in a statement Friday that his approach is "the best way to protect our country, while upholding our deeply held values."
...Obama
is immediately changing the rules that govern the trials in ways consistent with his past criticism of the Bush system. Obama also is asking Congress to change the law.WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama will restart military tribunals for a small number of Guantanamo detainees, reviving a Bush-era trial system he once assailed as flawed but with new legal protections for terror suspects, U.S. officials said.
The changes to the system, which will affect a small number of detainees, will be announced Friday.
The military trials will remain frozen for another four months as the administration adjusts the legal system that is expected to try
fewer than 20 of the 241 detainees at the U.S. naval detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Thirteen detainees - including five charged with helping orchestrate the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks - are already in the tribunal system.
Two senior administration officials outlined several of the rules changes, which will be carried out by executive authority, to The Associated Press on Thursday night. They include:
_Restrictions on hearsay evidence that can be used in court against the detainees.
_A ban on all evidence obtained through cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. This would include statements given from detainees who were subjected to waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning.
_Giving detainees greater leeway in choosing their own military counsel.
_Protecting detainees who refuse to testify from legal sanctions or other court prejudices.The White House may seek additional changes to the military commissions law over the next 120 days, but it was not immediately clear Thursday what they could include. The two senior administration officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Obama had not yet announced the changes.
snip
The restrictions on evidence almost certainly will result in only a fraction of detainees who ever will go to trial. The rest of the detainees would either be released, transferred to other nations or tried by civilian prosecutors in U.S. federal courts, an official said.It's also possible that some could continue to be held indefinitely as prisoners of war with full Geneva Conventions protections, according to another senior U.S. official.
The decision to restart the process puts the administration in a race against the clock to conclude commission trials before the Navy prison is closed, by January 2010. If the trials are still going on, the detainees might have to be brought to the United States, where they would receive even greater legal rights.
Since Obama's executive order to close the prison, Republicans have focused on the issue of where the detainees would go - and the new Democratic administration's lack of a plan to deal with them. In his Thursday statement, Graham said he would not support allowing detainees to be released into the United States.
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/05/15/ap6429085.html