Tuesday, March 9, 2010

"Legally Right or Politically Correct???"

Try the terrorists behind which venue: Door #1 - for the world to see, or Door #2 - limited visibility?

Update (March 9, 2010): The drip, drip, drip of torture info is torture in and of itself. It's worse than trying to conduct a decent interrogation of members of Congress about former Rep. Mark Foley's hanky-panky with a group of House pages ... but, that's a different story.

This story about what water boarding did and didn't do at Gitmo is from Salon.com and it's an excellent piece by Mark Benjamin.

Original Post: As we watch and wait for President Obama to decide, keep these two things to keep in mind:

"It would be a sad day for the rule of law if President Obama decides not to proceed with a federal trial. I thought the decision where to put people on trial -- whether federal court or military commissions -- was based on what was right, not what is politically advantageous."

— Marine Corps Colonel (Lawyer) Jeffrey Colwell, acting chief defense counsel at the Defense Department's Office of Military Commissions.

and:

"If President Obama reverses Holder's decision to try the 9/11 defendants in criminal court and retreats to using the Bush military commissions, he deals a death blow to his own Justice Department, breaks a clear campaign promise to restore the rule of law and demonstrates that the promises to his constituents are all up for grabs. The military commissions have not worked, they are doomed to failure, and Obama will invariably find himself running for office again while not achieving justice for the 9/11 attacks."

— Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

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