The Obama Watch
Obama Roseannadanna
Never mind! Suddenly, holding terror suspects indefinitely without trial is OK.
What would candidate Obama say upon hearing the news that President Obama’s attorney general acknowledged yesterday that the administration will continue to hold terror suspects without trial indefinitely?
Remember Candidate Obama? He was the guy who went around the country breathlessly accusing the Bush administration of violating the Constitution, civil liberties, and our national values by holding terror suspects without trial in a military prison in Cuba.
In his national security speech on Aug. 1, 2007, candidate Obama proclaimed, “What’s more, in the dark halls of Abu Ghraib and the detention cells of Guantanamo, we have compromised our most precious values. What could have been a call to a generation has become an excuse for unchecked presidential power.”
He went on:
I also will reject a legal framework that does not work. There has been only one conviction at Guantanamo. It was for a guilty plea on material support for terrorism. The sentence was 9 months. There has not been one conviction of a terrorist act. I have faith in America’s courts, and I have faith in our JAGs. As President, I will close Guantanamo, reject the Military Commissions Act, and adhere to the Geneva Conventions. Our Constitution and our Uniform Code of Military Justice provide a framework for dealing with the terrorists.
That was during the campaign. Back then, it was a simple moral choice: America’s core values were on one side and holding terrorists without trial was on the other. But President Obama’s actions have shown the lie to candidate Obama’s rhetoric.
Yesterday, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee that only about a quarter of the detainees now held at Guantanamo Bay would ever get a trial — civilian or military. Sen. Lindsey Graham said he thought roughly 25 percent of detainees would stand trial, and Holder said that figure was “about right,” the Associated Press reported.
“I don’t think we’re going to have a very huge number” go to trial, Holder reiterated.
“What we’re trying to do is make the world understand that we’re trying a different approach,” Holder said later. That different approach would end al Qaeda’s ability to use Guantanamo Bay to recruit terrorists.
What’s the different approach?
“The thought we had was that there would be some kind of review with regard to the initial determination and then a periodic review,” he said.
In other words, a judge would review the evidence and determine whether detainees should be held, then would periodically re-review. That’s it.
Apparently Holder thinks al Qaeda members have such respect for our judiciary that they will consider fair and just any judicial determination that one of their brothers should be held indefinitely without trial.
Of course, all Guantanamo Bay detainees already went through a review process before being incarcerated there. Holder pretends, as his boss has all along, that such reviews never took place and that Muslims were simply swept off the streets of foreign lands at random and brought to Guantanamo Bay without any effort on our part to determine whether they were threats to Americans.
Once again, the harsh realities of a difficult war with multiple moral gray areas have forced President Obama to contradict candidate Obama’s simplistic moral grandstanding and come down largely on the side of the previous administration, with a few minor administrative adjustments.
About the Author
Andrew Cline is editorial page editor of the New Hampshire Union Leader. His Twitter ID is @Drewhampshire.
John| 6.18.09 @ 7:14AM
Mr. Cline...
Er... um... That's "Emily Litella" Please see Wiki for an explanation.
Rosanne was the news commentator/reporterette who was loud, did gross things on the air, and related totally non-related information to the viewer...(sort of like all "Commenporters" for Pravda, eh?)
I get what you mean... however... That is what The One will be saying about almost everything that he touches. His failures will become manifold, and manifest.
Maybe one day in 2012 the American people will catch the moment as "Chedder Cheese" corrects us and enlightens us on the misdirection of the rant, and the entire nation will smile deadpan into the camera and say... "Oh? Nevermind."
r/John - TMF - Your classic Saturday Night Live sort of guy.
Appleby| 6.18.09 @ 7:24AM
Amazing how facts change the rhetorical equation, isnt it?
The one we older people are looking forward to is the day the Yners realize THEY are now The Man and the target is now on THEIR backs as all the Special People they have reared are giving them a big dose of the medicine they have brewed in the believe that Somebody Else would always keep the wheels turning and pour money into the pot.
Obama personifies that generation for the world -- those who refuse to let facts get in the way of their declarations.
Recently I lost my job, partly because I am so efficient that certain people believed I did no work. As always, they are going to have to hire two people to replace me. Obama is learning that lesson too -- that what looks easy from the outside is proving to be a labour of Hercules when HE has to do it.
Serves him -- and the Yners -- right.
John Navratil| 6.18.09 @ 9:27AM
To all Emily Litellarists -- Obama Roseannadanna rolls off the tongue so much better -- sounds rather like a fine wine.
Patron: Would you have any of the 2008 Obama Roseannadanna?
Somelier: Of course sir. It complements the fish, the bull and the tripe.
Oh, nevermind :)
Flyswatter| 6.18.09 @ 10:31AM
He kills flies!
L. Ross| 6.18.09 @ 12:08PM
John:
Thanks for the tip on Emily Litella. I would have made the same mistake as the author.
I could handle BHO better if he wasn't so damn smug all the time about most everything. Sometime, I would like to hear him say something like this.
"You know, as a candidate, it's easy to have unshakable principles, but as President, now that I truly do get to see all of the big picture, it is much more challenging, and I must balance my core principles with the lives of America's citizens. Let's face it, people, not everything George Bush did was entirely wrong."
Any day now, any day now.
S.L. Toddard| 6.18.09 @ 2:04PM
Obama is an establishment water-carrier, a staunch defender of the status quo and the Washington political class - a run of the mill, conventional Washington politician. The majority of his promises to restore the Rule of Law and accountability have been abandoned. Indeed, he has adopted the majority of President Bush's alleged "anti-terrorism" policies - preventive detention, kangaroo courts, illegal spying on Americans, rendition etc. That's why neoconservative hatred of Obama is so transparently absurd. One cannot simultaneously argue that Obama has A) launched a radical departure from Bush policies that will get us all killed and B) proved himself a hypocrite by never departing from Bush's policies.
Pick a complaint to whine about and stick to it.
Daisy| 6.18.09 @ 3:24PM
I used to enjoy her skits. Please don't ruin my favorite SNL character for me.
John Navratil| 6.18.09 @ 3:57PM
S.L. Toddard,
Since we are choosing our arguments, why can't we have one from Column A and one from Column B.
I reject the false choice between having my cake and eating it too.
From Column A), I pick publication of interrogation methods, Mirandizing terrorists to keep them quiet, appeasing Iran to the point of ignoring any nascent democracy, and pandering to Islamists in the Cairo speech.
Anything in Column B) will do just fine. He has, at least, recognized that there are some incorrigible terrorists and perhaps that releasing evidentiary photos can do only harm. Although I think you tip your hand when you assert that he has never departed from Bush's policies, enhanced interrogation, e.g.
Daisy| 6.18.09 @ 5:10PM
Obama a staunch defender of the status quo? If you mean Obama staunchly defends the status quo of Liberal Chicago political corruption, I agree.
But I'm not so sure that's what Obama was doing when he took over the Banking and Auto Industries: Or is doing by trying to socialize health care in America.
Toddard, your statement is predictably STUPID, but that's just the status quo for you.
Get a brain and try to use it.
stmichrick| 6.18.09 @ 6:59PM
It gives me such pleasure to watch these fools in the Obama Administration discover for themselves what a GOOD IDEA Guantanamo was.
The campaign rhetoric felt good at the time, but now demonstrates how UNREADY they were to take responsibility and govern.
Pingback| 6.19.09 @ 3:10AM
The American Spectator : Obama Roseannadanna : PlanetTalk.net - Learn the truth , no links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Stultis| 6.19.09 @ 3:34AM
Cheney Chase: And now, with tonight's commentary, Obamily Litella.
Obamily Litella: This indefinite detention of terriers is a horrible, horrible thing. Shame on you, President Bush! Why, your own dog, Barney, is a terrier! How would you like it if someone locked little Barney in a kennel and threw away the key? When I think of these cute, perky, lovable little creatures being detained....
Cheney: Uh, Obamily...
Obamily: Hush, now! Don't interrupt me. This just makes my blood boil! And what's this I hear about these little doggies being dangerous? Sure, they might nip at you, but that's usually just because you startled them. Try speaking in a soothing voice...
Cheney: ...It's terrorists.
Obamily: Huh?
Cheney: Not terriers; not any kind of dog. President Bush detained terrorists.
Obamily: Oh. Terrorists you say?
Cheney: Yes.
Obamily: The kind with guns and bombs?
Cheney: Yes. Illegal combatants affiliated with al Qaeada and like minded terrorist organizations, captured on the battlefield or plotting against America and her allies.
Obamily: Well, that's very different.
Cheney: Yes, it is.
Obamily: Terrorists aren't cute or perky at all.
Cheney: No, they aren't.
Obamily: Nor lovable.
Cheney: No.
Obamily: They probably should be detained.
Cheney: Uh, huh.
Obamily: Never mind.
Pingback| 6.19.09 @ 6:07AM
The American Spectator : Obama Roseannadanna | links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Mike| 6.19.09 @ 3:14PM
Unfortunately, I don't think Obama's schtick is just incompetant naivete. I think he fully understood that the "Bush" policies were indispensable in war on terror, yet he continually bashed them during his campaign - throwing red meat to his anti-American backers and causing untold damage to American prestige abroad.
He is truely a despicable politician.
rogelio el contrario| 6.21.09 @ 1:51AM
It is truly disturbing to read how many so called Conservatives are ready to jettison the US Constitution in the face of "terrorists". Just as America has won every other war by respecting our Constitution, we can also defeat this enemy without losing our reason for being. Our founding fathers were wiser than Bush or Obama.
Obama was right when he campaigned to return to the Constitution, and he is wrong now to drop that fundamental principle.
What is a "Conservative" if not someone who wants to "conserve" our founding ideals?
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