From top, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Ramzi Bin al-Shibh and Walid Bin Attash
Weekend document dumps and the floating of trial balloons are something of a national past time. By my count this is the 4th time Obama leaked stories about Gitmo on the weekend. Usually the weekend is used when the public might find something unpalatable, in this case Obama uses the weekends not to duck the public at large, but his left wing base who have demonized Gitmo way out of proportion. One of the last acts before Obama shut down the Gitmo Tribunals was the pleading of guilt by 5 terrorists. Now Obama wants to accept their guilty pleas and theoretically fast track their death sentences. That is quite a shift, or as the media spin would say the president has "Evolved" on the issue.
The Obama administration is considering a change in the law for the military commissions at the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, that would clear the way for detainees facing the death penalty to plead guilty without a full trial.The provision could permit military prosecutors to avoid airing the details of brutal interrogation techniques. It could also allow the five detainees who have been charged with the Sept. 11 attacks to achieve their stated goal of pleading guilty to gain what they have called martyrdom.
The proposal, in a draft of legislation that would be submitted to Congress, has not been publicly disclosed. It was circulated to officials under restrictions requiring secrecy. People who have read or been briefed on it said it had been presented to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates by an administration task force on detention.
Obviously this has critics:
David Glazier, an associate professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles who has written about the commission system, said: “This unfortunately strikes me as an effort to get rid of the problem in the easiest way possible, which is to have those people plead guilty and presumably be executed. But I think it’s going to lack international credibility.”
Works for me.
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