Barack Obama will create a kangaroo court for suspected terrorists

Washington Post:

A Justice Department-led task force has concluded that nearly 50 of the 196 detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should be held indefinitely without trial under the laws of war, according to Obama administration officials.

The task force has recommended that Guantanamo Bay detainees be divided into three main groups: about 35 who should be prosecuted in federal or military courts; at least 110 who can be released, either immediately or eventually; and the nearly 50 who must be detained without trial.

Administration officials argue that detaining terrorism suspects under Congress’s authorization of the use of force against al-Qaeda and the Taliban is legal and that each detainee has the right to challenge his incarceration in habeas corpus proceedings in federal court.

The Obama Administration will sort out the guilty from the innocent. It will assign life sentences to the guilty. And only then will it allow trials for some of the guilty — those few it feels it can reliably convict, I’m sure. This is more about putting on a show than it is about either protecting Americans or standing up for our civil libertarian traditions. And that’s kind of ugly.

I want my country protected. I don’t want terrorists roaming free. But a government that assigns itself the power to assign guilt and punishment prior to a trial, or without a trial, concerns me greatly. I’m told by my security-minded friends that these rules don’t apply to American citizens, but to foreigners — who have no Constitutional rights — engaged in combat against Americans. Perhaps. But it’s a slippery slope.