Trial Delays Are Bad. So I’ll Be Delaying Your Trials by a Few More Months.

January 21, 2009

I can’t figure out what Obama thinks he’s going to accomplish by further delaying the non-very-speedy trials at Guantanamo. Morrissey:

Recall that the military tribunal process has twice passed Congress as the preferred manner of dealing with these terrorists. Barack Obama opposed it as a Senator, but it received bipartisan support on both occasions. In the second and current version, the process includes the right to appeal through the regular federal appellate courts.

In this case, justice delayed is not much of a change at all. Did Obama not have an idea of how to proceed when he took office? A four-month delay only means that the detainees will have to wait that much longer to see any adjudication of their status. Why not allow the tribunals to proceed, at least to get a finding of fact from them? If Obama wants to invalidate the process later, he can also invalidate their findings. It’s difficult to see what Obama expects to get from a further delay, especially since one of the main complaints about Gitmo has been the length of time the men have been held without adjudication.

This is 180-degrees removed from the correct direction, if the goal is to get these cases adjudicated, and I cannot imagine why Obama thinks further delays are somehow advisable. It’s kind of whack.

This, and his order suspending regulations, gives me the uneasy feeling that, like Carter, Obama is going to attempt to micromanage; that no processes will be allowed to move forward until he has had a chance to review them personally. I’m not sure that this is a realistic approach: have you taken a peek at the United States lately? It’s kind of a large country.

The delay would only be meaningful if Obama intended to free all of the Gitmo prisoners, something that the ACLU has urged. Somehow, I don’t think Barack Obama would be that foolish. It would be tough to win re-election as the man who set Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the other 9/11 actors free simply to win favor from Europe’s elite.

In the end, Gitmo really is two problems: location and process. If the process gets changed, then there’s no reason to change location. If the location was all that was at issue, then the process doesn’t matter.

But he can get his fingerprints all over it. That has to be a good thing. Um, right?

(And, before someone asks me, that’s Ed Morrissey at Hot Air—not the singer, who does a bit less political commentary.)

Posted in Americana, Around the 'Sphere, Guantanamo, Obama Administration, Trust the Gubmint