One of his first moves:
In one of its first actions, the Obama administration instructed military prosecutors late Tuesday to seek a 120-day suspension of legal proceedings involving detainees at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — a clear break with the approach of the outgoing Bush administration.
The instruction came in a motion filed with a military court in the case of five defendants accused of organizing the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. The motion called for “a continuance of the proceedings” until May 20 so that “the newly inaugurated president and his administration [can] review the military commissions process, generally, and the cases currently pending before military commissions, specifically.”
The same motion was filed in another case scheduled to resume Wednesday, involving a Canadian detainee, and will be filed in all other pending matters.
On top of the news that Marty Lederman will be joining the OLC, this is a solid day.
bago
It’s like he’s upholding the constitution or something. Amazing.
Conservatively Liberal
From what I understand, the judges are the ones who make the decision, all Obama can do is request it. I don’t know if this is true but if it is I wonder if any of the judges will fight him over it?
Still, it’s a good first move on his part.
Lavocat
I want to see the hyperkinetic energy of that vaunted community organizer in these One Hundred Days.
This is a hell of a great start.
Libby Spencer
It feels like the real New Year just started. Hell, it feels like a new age just started. And if you’ll forgive the early morning b/w, this was my favorite photo of inaugural day. Sasha speaks for me.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Don’t forget this:
A review of those regs should be veeeewy intwesting.
Tattoosydney
@Libby Spencer:
Eeeee. So cute.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMIX
They are only just now getting to work this morning, today is going to be awesome. It gets much better, watch!
Libby Spencer
@Tattoosydney: Isn’t it the best shot ever? Kind of summed it all up for me and I must have looked at a thousand photos besides having the teevee on all day long.
Tattoosydney
@Libby Spencer:
The whole family is just too damn adorable.
@CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMIX:
I keep refreshing to see if anything has changed.
Tattoosydney
He’s been a busy boy already, by the look of it.
wilfred
But what happens during this 120 days, and then after? This is a legal procedural move but with what intention?
As wretched a symbol as Gitmo is, moving trials elsewhere or keeping uncharged, unconvicted people in US custody indefinitely anywhere doesn’t solve anything.
And what if the judges don’t grant a continuance? The accused have been in custody an awful long time already, haven’t they?
I don’t get this.
Tattoosydney
@wilfred:
Obama presumably has a plan to close it, although we don’t know what it is. We will probably find out most of it in the next few days.
I’m not suggesting blind faith, but on the basis of his successes of the last two years, I suspect his plan is probably a good one, with all sorts of strategies and fall back strategies outlined in tabbed ring binders.
Do we really need to agonise about what might be in it before he tells us?
steve
a little bone thrown out to his supporters….with the economy the way it is and after he gets daily briefings on the iranian threat and other world issues obama will move to right-centerfield faster than you can "say so help me god"
NonyNony
@steve:
The economy will end up pushing him further to the left than he campaigned. It’ll have to if he wants to be successful – right-leaning policies are failures for jumpstarting economies that are in the toilet as the last, oh, entire modern era of politics has taught us. (Look at Japan for the most recent example of how "moving right" on economics can turn a recession into an incredibly long and painful recession).
World events will probably keep him right where he is – which is centrist by American standards and center-right by the world’s standards. He’s already been pretty aggressive in his rhetoric against Iran, and about the need to expand the war in Afghanistan. If anything the Afghanistan goals are going to push him to pull out of Iraq faster that originally planned so that he can devote more energy to Afghanistan. Godswilling Iran dials back a bit now that Bush is out of power and the outside enemy isn’t so damn easy to tweak. (One of the many, many, many problems with Bush was that the Iranian hawks could play him like a fiddle. Whenever they needed to drum up some outrage among the Iranian people to distract them from what was going on, they’d just poke Bush and he’d fire back with something stupid. Neither Clinton nor Bush the Elder were nearly as good an providing Iranian propaganda as Bush the Lesser was, and I really hope that Obama deals with attempts to provoke him into saying stupid shit as calmly as he did during the campaign. That alone will defuse the Iranian hawks more than anything Bush has managed to do for the last 8 years.)
tom p
Lederman at OLC: More proof that we have a President who really does believe in the Rule of Law, and Constitutional limitations on the office of the President.
gex
@wilfred: I’m with him on this one. Who knows what kind of kangaroo court kind of legal process the Bushies concocted to deal with these guys. Better to examine that at the expense of 120 days than rush these guys through the system. And if we have to accept further detention of these guys while that happens, at least we can be glad that we won’t be torturing them anymore.
Egilsson
Does this mean we won’t be able to waterboard Cheney, Addington and Yoo?
canuckistani
So who got pardoned at the last minute? I haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere.
SGEW
Interesting tidbit #1: Obama appoints Marty "Prosecute Bush For Crimes Against Humanity" Lederman to John Yoo’s old position in the OLC.
Interesting tidbit #2: Obama hires Neal Kaytal, who successfully argued Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, as the principal deputy solicitor general.
THEY’RE COMING FOR YOU ADDINGTON!
I love how the Lederman hire wasn’t even announced: it was leaked through Balkinization (and Prof. Lederman’s cancelled class schedule). I don’t think very many people realize how very, very big this is (biggest appointment decision yet, in my opinion).
I’ve read Lederman for a long time now, seen him speak several times, and have had the privilege to ask him several questions about the Bush administration’s war crimes (the answers were, basically: yes, they are criminals and should be prosecuted). He’s the most awesomest awesome evah: he’s like Glenn Greenwald with half the hyperbole and twice the brains.
This this this this this is why I supported Obama in the first place. And th’ guy is proving me right.
[SGEW does a little legal fan-boy dance]
TenguPhule
And that is why you are full of fail, wilfred.
wilfred
Still mourning the loss of the best president your country ever had, eh?
Or was it Obama’s acknowledgement that (gasp) Muslims exist?
But cheer up, it’s another 120 days of torture.
Greg
Yes for heaven’s sake it is only fitting that the new President of the United States should in his first act on behalf of the United States halt the trial of the man who is not a citizen of the United States who planned and directed the attack on thousands of citizens of the United States on 9-11. Just because he denied our citizens the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (not to mention the families he grieved) we must be sure that we see to it that we extend to him every right he denied others. Terrorists first, Americans get in line behind.
rachel
@Greg: Wow, that’s some great spoofing there! :) Do you only impersonate wingnuts, or can you do impressions of ethical people, too?
jim
Oh those paranoid Democrats & their fetish with the rule of law! The Bush DOJ was handling these cases – so what could possibly have gone wrong?
*
Hmm … I just read that when Maher Arar – according to those who tried to prosecute him after a his "rendition" off a Toronto streetcorner – was supposed to be in Afghanistan (presumably being groomed by his Taliban handlers), he was actually in North America (presumably watching South Park & eating Doritos) … oopsy daisies!
*
Wonder how many of those Gitmo cases are at all legit – & how many of the legit ones are going to be dismissed due to Bush’s predilection for "enhanced interrogation" … yet again, Bush helps terrorists, just like he helped Hamas recently by ramming elections down the Palestinians’ throats before they could sufficiently strengthen the PA … & just like his dad & Reagan did with all those lovely weapons & supplies, back when they were called Mujahideen … funny, that.