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Oh my: Obama drafts executive order to detain terrorists indefinitely without trial
Hotair ^ | 6/26/2009 | Allahpundit

Posted on 06/26/2009 5:46:21 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

First broken a few hours ago by WaPo, now confirmed by the AP, a little Friday evening care package from The One while the media’s busy obsessing over Jacko and cap ‘n trade.

Do bear in mind that, contrary to leftist talking points, it’s not just the fact that some of the evidence against these turds was obtained through “torture” that makes them untriable in regular courts. Other evidence is either classified or was obtained from foreign intel — points that WaPo, to its credit, acknowledges but which our nutroots superiors tend to gloss over.

"Such an order would embrace claims by former president George W. Bush that certain people can be detained without trial for long periods under the laws of war. Obama advisers are concerned that bypassing Congress could place the president on weaker footing before the courts and anger key supporters, the officials said…

Some of Obama’s top legal advisers, along with a handful of influential Republican and Democratic lawmakers, have pushed for the creation of a “national security court” to supervise the incarceration of detainees deemed too dangerous to release but who cannot be charged or tried.

But the three senior government officials said the White House has turned away from that option, at least for now, because legislation establishing a special court would be both difficult to pass and likely to fracture Obama’s own party…

“Legislation could kill Obama’s plans,” said one government official involved. The official said an executive order could be the best option for the president at this juncture. Under one White House draft that was being discussed earlier this month, according to administration officials, detainees would be imprisoned at a military facility on U.S. soil but their ongoing detention would be subject to annual presidential review. U.S. citizens would not be held in the system…

One administration official said future transfers to the United States for long-term detention would be rare. Al-Qaeda operatives captured on the battlefield, which the official defined as Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and possibly the Horn of Africa, would be held in battlefield facilities."

Thank goodness future captives will be spared the military-run horror that is Gitmo for the cushy pleasure palaces that are military-run battlefield prisons. We’ve known this was in the works for months now, but I confess, I’m still surprised that Obama’s willing to bypass Congress. It makes sense politically, I guess — a left vs. center battle on national security in the House and Senate is a headache he doesn’t need right now — but (a) taking sole responsibility via an executive order pits him squarely against the ACLU crowd and opens him up to charges of being too Bush-like and (b) the constitutionality of indefinite detention will be jeopardized by not having congressional backing per Justice Jackson’s analysis in Youngstown v. Sawyer. Although, who knows — maybe that’s The One’s plan. By putting himself on the worst possible legal footing, he increases the chances of the Supreme Court declaring the program unconstitutional, which in turn will put pressure on Congress to bless it, thereby giving him political cover. Bottom line: No matter how much the left pouts, Barry O’s not risking a second term on letting questionable jihadis go until some other branch of government makes him.


TOPICS: Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: obama; terror; terrorists; trial
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1 posted on 06/26/2009 5:46:21 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Bush’s idea.


2 posted on 06/26/2009 5:48:28 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Hey America! How's that "hope and change" thing working out? Are you scared yet?)
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To: SeekAndFind
"The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training".
~Joe Biden
3 posted on 06/26/2009 5:49:13 PM PDT by South40 (Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance. ~Hussein Obama, Cairo, Egypt, June 4, 2009)
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To: FlingWingFlyer
Bush’s idea.

With a different intent however.

4 posted on 06/26/2009 5:49:44 PM PDT by johniegrad
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To: SeekAndFind

This isn’t aimed at muslims. This is aimed at Christians on the Right.


5 posted on 06/26/2009 5:50:40 PM PDT by Centurion2000 (Out of gas become a pill box, Out of ammo become a bunker, Out of hope become a hero.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Compromise made for the cap and trade vote?


6 posted on 06/26/2009 5:53:57 PM PDT by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Domestic Conservative Terrorists as defined by DHS?


7 posted on 06/26/2009 5:56:10 PM PDT by nevergore ("It could be that the purpose of my life is simply to serve as a warning to others.")
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To: FlingWingFlyer

Bush’s idea related to Islamic terrorists - who have a proven track record of trying to kill us - after the Dems suddenly decided it was safe to come out and channel their inner Islamists and announce that these people were no longer a threat and all they needed, regardless of how many Americans they had killed, was luv.

The problem is that the original law could not be written that way, and the result is that now Bambi has carte blanche to do what he wants.

I suspect that many of us are going to end up in Bambi’s gulags, and because of this law, nobody is ever going to know what happened to us until years later when some freedom-loving people (from where I do not know) releases whoever survives and writes the history.


8 posted on 06/26/2009 6:01:12 PM PDT by livius
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To: SeekAndFind
So the pot WAS calling the kettle black. Bush's policies
sucked only as long as Bush needed them. Now they are
fine, so long as the “Anointed One” decrees.

JJ61

9 posted on 06/26/2009 6:05:33 PM PDT by JerseyJohn61 (Better Late Than Never.......sometimes over lapping is worth the effort....)
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To: freekitty

Was thinking the same thing...Probably one of the deals he made with the RINOS for their votes.


10 posted on 06/26/2009 6:07:18 PM PDT by Lisamei62 (A Revolution's Brewing...Will You Join Us?)
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To: SeekAndFind

When the Big Red Phone rings at 3am in the White Crib, it goes to voicemail, but it’s still W’s voice on the recorder (not that he ever screened his Big Red Phone calls).


11 posted on 06/26/2009 6:09:45 PM PDT by SERKIT ("Blazing Saddles" explains it all.....)
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To: SeekAndFind
Obama said Bush left him a "mess" at Guantanamo. Actually the administration created the most humane, secure and constitutionally acceptable method of dealing with captive terrorists. The government spent five years fighting left-wing lawyers in court before being able to try detainees in a military tribunal. The "mess" is the result of Obama lacking the courage to admit he was wrong.
12 posted on 06/26/2009 6:15:06 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee (A politician can't give you anything he hasn't first stolen from you.)
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To: Centurion2000

GITMO detainees are no longer deemed terrorists. People captured on the battlefield are to be mirandized.

The DHS label is specific.


13 posted on 06/26/2009 6:27:19 PM PDT by combat_boots
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To: SeekAndFind
...while the media’s busy obsessing over Jacko and cap ‘n trade.

Whoa, haven't heard anything on the latter all day

14 posted on 06/26/2009 6:40:06 PM PDT by Las Vegas Ron (zer0 is doing to capitalism what Kennedy did to health care)
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To: SeekAndFind

The burning question is just who qualifies as a ‘terrorist’ by this America hating marxist president.

I’m afraid I know.

Pro life people

2nd. Amendment rights people

Anti tax citizens.

Believers in God, Christians, Jews, etc.


15 posted on 06/26/2009 6:43:58 PM PDT by Carley (OBAMA IS A MALEVOLENT FORCE IN THE WORLD)
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To: Centurion2000

I’m afraid you are correct. Are we taking bets on who is the first to be held based on this? Will they pray with a Koran, or a Bible? Will we even hear of it? Or will some voices merely fall silent...


16 posted on 06/26/2009 6:55:27 PM PDT by CodeMasterPhilzar (I'll keep my money, my guns, and my freedom. You can keep the "change.")
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To: SeekAndFind

This is just more proof that it’s Friday.


17 posted on 06/26/2009 7:05:07 PM PDT by keats5 (Not all of us are hypnotized.)
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To: Las Vegas Ron

Are you series ? R’s came close but no cigar to defeating .. 8 R defections .. lots of threads on here. At the moment, no one believes it will pass in the Senate. We shall see.


18 posted on 06/26/2009 7:07:57 PM PDT by EDINVA (A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul -- G. B. Shaw)
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To: SeekAndFind

Let me see—White male, military veteran, Christian, owns guns, pro=life, votes conservative — Yep, looks like a terrorist Obama will send the police out to round up....in a local neighborhood close to you.


19 posted on 06/26/2009 7:23:11 PM PDT by GreyFriar (Spearhead - 3rd Armored Division 75-78 & 83-87)
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To: EDINVA
Actually I meant on the radio, TV etc. All whacko jacko all the time.

Hope you are right about the Senate though, oy.

20 posted on 06/26/2009 7:31:26 PM PDT by Las Vegas Ron (zer0 is doing to capitalism what Kennedy did to health care)
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