Trying To Tie Obama's Hands On Gitmo

Air Force Brigadier General Thomas Hartmann
Brendan Smialowski / Getty

From Time Magazine:

Of all President-elect Barack Obama's early priorities, few have drawn more attention than his pledge to shut down the U.S. detention camp at Guantánamo Bay. Closing Gitmo will mean release for many of the facility's 225 detainees, while the rest will face trial on terrorism charges.

But closing Gitmo is the relatively easy part. Far more complex will be what Obama decides to do about Guantánamo's so-called "military commissions" — the Bush Administration's controversial legal apparatus for judging accused terrorists. The Supreme Court and other federal courts have repeatedly found fault with the commissions, which critics say are show trials unworthy of American jurisprudence.

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My Comment: President-elect Obama's hands are not tied. As President he can do whatever he wants. The problem is that his actions have consequences that will not be appealing to a great number of people. President-elect Obama knows that .... and many in his inner political cicle also know that.

In the end President Obam will have to make a political decision that will make a great number of people very unhappy .... and even more angrier if known terrorist are released because the American legal system cannot accommodate the way that they were apprehended for the crimes that they committed.