For not releasing terrorists ...
In an editorial entitled "Obama's Great Mistake," the center-left daily Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:
"Obama's people certainly imagined things differently. But reality has caught up with them. What should they do with people who … are in fact horrifying criminals but whose confessions came as a result of brutal interrogations? No regular court would accept the testimony. Should suspected masterminds of the 9/11 attacks and other terrible attacks be set free? That can't be the solution either. Obama is thus considering holding on to the military commissions with a couple of extra rights for the suspects. Bush light, so to speak."
"Obama is thus discrediting both himself and the US.
Obama has managed to get the US into a bind. He has claimed that the terrorists at Gitmo were tortured as a way of smearing Bush. At the same time he can't simply release them, that would cause a political firestorm. And trying them in a civilian court would be fraught with danger.
I am not a lawyer, but I could imagine mounting a defense that the terrorists were detained illegally, outside of US jurisdiction, without regard for their Miranda rights against self-incrimination. They could claim that they were lawful combatants and therefore not criminals. In fact, for their illegal imprisonment, they could demand millions of dollars in damages. Would that not be congruent to the Obama position of the prisoners at Gitmo?
Isn't that what the Left has been claiming all along?
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