DOJ: No More Enemy Combatants

6 Comments

1. 

   Ed J on March 13, 2009 at 8:21 pm

   would still smell:

   U.S. Abandons Detainee Label but Policy Is Largely Intact

   By WILLIAM GLABERSON
   Published: March 13, 2009
   The Obama administration on Friday said it was abandoning the use in court proceedings of the Bush administration’s term “enemy combatant” as it argues for the continued detention of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, symbolically separating itself from Bush detention policies.

   But in a filing in federal court, the Justice Department argued that the president had expansive authority to detain terror suspects there without criminal charges, much as the Bush administration asserted. It provided a broad definition of those who can be held, signaling that, as long as Guantanamo remained open, the new administration would aggressively defend its ability to hold some detainees there.

   “The president has the authority to detain persons” who planned or aided the 2001 terrorist attacks as well as those “who were part of, or substantially supported, Taliban or al Qaeda forces,” said the filing in some 40 habeas corpus cases of detainees’ challenging their imprisonment.

   • 

     BooMan on March 13, 2009 at 8:29 pm

     I don’t know that there is anything wrong with holding terrorists in detention.  What is needed is a process where we are forced to prove they are terrorists and charge them with something.

     • 

       Ed J on March 13, 2009 at 8:34 pm

       Hence the problem with:

       But in a filing in federal court, the Justice Department argued that the president had expansive authority to detain terror suspects there without criminal charges, much as the Bush administration asserted.

       Emphasis mine.

2. 

   Zandar1 on March 13, 2009 at 10:02 pm

   This seems like another bucket of shit we’re forced to eat.

   We’re still holding people without charging them in criminal court.  Obama is still using the John Yoo playbook on infinite detentions.

   Nothing’s really changed.

   • 

     robertdsc on March 14, 2009 at 12:11 am

     They’re being held under the laws written by Congress after 9-11. Not at the President’s whim. Big difference.

3. 

   Hurria on March 14, 2009 at 4:15 am

   You can call a pound of s*** a dozen roses if you like, but it will still not look pretty in a vase or make the room smell good.