Patterico's Pontifications

1/21/2009

Obama Delays Trials at Gitmo

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 6:24 am

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s trial is among those receiving a 120-day delay.

I share Ed Morrissey’s puzzlement. What is the point of this?

28 Comments

  1. If Bush had done this, the headline would be “Bush suspends right to trial!”

    But looking at it charitably, I assume that Obama wants to be sure he can approve of and support the process. If he were to decide, after a thorough review, that he didn’t approve of the process used to try the likes of KSM, but the process had already been followed, that would be a very difficult position to be in.

    It has the practical positive benefit of putting off the day for making tough decisions a bit longer.

    Comment by PatHMV — 1/21/2009 @ 6:34 am

  2. If he were to decide, after a thorough review, that he didn’t approve of the process used to try the likes of KSM, but the process had already been followed, that would be a very difficult position to be in.

    Given that the process was approved by Congress, you’d think that formed Senator Obama already knows what it is. Or, perhaps they discussed it while he wasn’t “present”.

    Comment by Pablo — 1/21/2009 @ 6:42 am

  3. It gives him 120 days to figure out how to deal with both the accused (who he now realizes are not the sweet innocents the nutroots think they are) and those nutroots.

    Comment by htom — 1/21/2009 @ 6:43 am

  4. Obama seems to think that taking lots of time to consider matters is like actually making a decision. My guess is that the delay will be indefinite until he closed Guantanamo or the press forgets the whole thing.

    Comment by Mike K — 1/21/2009 @ 6:49 am

  5. Also, “close Gitmo”, is he planning on closing Camp X-Ray or giving the whole base back to the Cuban Communists?

    Comment by Techie — 1/21/2009 @ 7:10 am

  6. White House Counsel Marty Lederman is more concerned with getting the real war criminals of Cheney and Rumsfeld (at least that is what Andrew Sullivan is hoping for), torture victims like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed can wait.

    I hope President Obama does not go there, it would be very bad for this country. Disagree with the Bush-Cheney interrogation policies? Fair enough, so do I. Change the policies. Prosecuting them for it? That would be a huge disaster.

    Comment by Joe — 1/21/2009 @ 7:42 am

  7. The terrorists are laughing at us. They will not show us the same compassion.

    Comment by Stan Switek — 1/21/2009 @ 8:33 am

  8. Just pathetic — he truly is the commander in chief in training.

    Wow, what leadership!!

    Comment by Richard Romano — 1/21/2009 @ 8:34 am

  9. Some of them will probably be convicted and sentenced to death. I don’t think he’s ready to explain that one to his cult.

    Comment by Chris — 1/21/2009 @ 8:42 am

  10. Well, this is just triangulation.

    GITMO and military trials are non-negotiable demand of the left. he has to do something different from Bush to give them some satisfaction so he can then get away with screwing them over on other things, such as taxation or longer involvement in Iraq.

    Comment by headhunt23 — 1/21/2009 @ 8:43 am

  11. Obama voted against the military tribunals twice in Congress even though they passed both times with bipartisan consent. This may be one of the few times he is acting consistently with prior behavior or promises.

    Comment by daleyrocks — 1/21/2009 @ 9:10 am

  12. support not consent

    Comment by daleyrocks — 1/21/2009 @ 9:11 am

  13. Republicans don’t understand how laws work. That’s why this doesn’t make sense to you.

    DUMBFUCKINGCUNTS

    Comment by Levi from the University of Montana — 1/21/2009 @ 9:12 am

  14. Kick the can down the road 120 days and hope that the worst of the Bush Derangement Syndrome suffers will have moved on to other things by the spring after throwing them this meager bone. That’s all this is about.

    Comment by John — 1/21/2009 @ 9:29 am

  15. You no longer get to vote present, Baracky.

    Comment by JD — 1/21/2009 @ 9:32 am

  16. He’s going to release them to the custody of Acorn.

    Comment by Patricia — 1/21/2009 @ 9:36 am

  17. Obama has had months to consider what he’s going to do. It should not take 120 days to decide what he’s going to do with KSM and GITMO.

    Comment by Joco — 1/21/2009 @ 10:03 am

  18. I think Obama’s reaction to the habeas cases is of much more importance than whether these trials go forward in any sort of reasonable fashion.

    Comment by Soronel Haetir — 1/21/2009 @ 10:07 am

  19. The point is politics. Obama is looking for a way to make political hay out of some action. All politics, all the time.

    Comment by Ken Hahn — 1/21/2009 @ 10:08 am

  20. He can release them all to those communities he organized/destroyed on the southside of Chicago.

    Comment by JD — 1/21/2009 @ 10:13 am

  21. “What is the point of this?” To make the rest of the world love the USA again, silly.

    Comment by gp — 1/21/2009 @ 10:13 am

  22. Now that Baracky has ascended to the throne, can France be our friend again? Pretty please ?!

    Comment by JD — 1/21/2009 @ 10:22 am

  23. When things like this happen, I always like to bring up this scene from Monty Python’s Life of Brian:

    [The revolutionary group Brian runs with is having a meeting to determine future plans.]

    REG:
    Right. Now, uh, item four: attainment of world supremacy within the next five years. Uh, Francis, you’ve been doing some work on this.
    FRANCIS:
    Yeah. Thank you, Reg. Well, quite frankly, siblings, I think five years is optimistic, unless we can smash the Roman empire within the next twelve months.
    REG:
    Twelve months?
    FRANCIS:
    Yeah, twelve months. And, let’s face it. As empires go, this is the big one, so we’ve got to get up off our arses and stop just talking about it!
    COMMANDOS:
    Hear! Hear!
    LORETTA:
    I agree. It’s action that counts, not words, and we need action now.
    COMMANDOS:
    Hear! Hear!
    REG:
    You’re right. We could sit around here all day talking, passing resolutions, making clever speeches. It’s not going to shift one Roman soldier!
    FRANCIS:
    So, let’s just stop gabbing on about it. It’s completely pointless and it’s getting us nowhere!
    COMMANDOS:
    Right!
    LORETTA:
    I agree. This is a complete waste of time.
    [Judith, Brian's girlfriend & co-conspirator, bursts into the room]
    JUDITH:
    They’ve arrested Brian!
    REG:
    What?
    COMMANDOS:
    What?
    JUDITH:
    They’ve dragged him off! They’re going to crucify him!
    REG:
    Right! This calls for immediate discussion!
    COMMANDO #1:
    Yeah.
    JUDITH:
    What?!
    COMMANDO #2:
    Immediate.
    COMMANDO #1:
    Right.
    LORETTA:
    New motion?
    REG:
    Completely new motion, eh, that, ah– that there be, ah, immediate action–
    FRANCIS:
    Ah, once the vote has been taken.
    REG:
    Well, obviously once the vote’s been taken. You can’t act another resolution till you’ve voted on it…
    JUDITH:
    Reg, for God’s sake, let’s go now!
    REG:
    Yeah. Yeah.
    JUDITH:
    Please!
    REG:
    Right. Right.
    FRANCIS:
    Fine.
    REG:
    In the– in the light of fresh information from, ahh, sibling Judith–
    LORETTA:
    Ah, not so fast, Reg.
    JUDITH:
    Reg, for God’s sake, it’s perfectly simple. All you’ve got to do is to go out of that door now, and try to stop the Romans’ nailing him up! It’s happening, Reg! Something’s actually happening, Reg! Can’t you understand?! Ohhh!
    [Judith storms out of the room in frustration]

    Comment by Icy Texan — 1/21/2009 @ 10:32 am

  24. We will see more of this indeciveness. Putting something up for study for four months when it was a major issue for Democrats for 5 years is simply buying time before the tough decisions need to be made.

    Obama’s major weakness is his fear of making an erroneous decision. He has built himself up, as has the press, with an aura of infallibilty. People who are afraid of making mistakes are risk averse. They tend to be indecisive and delay making the tough decisions.

    We saw this with Obama’s campaign. He procrastinated when Russia invaded Georgia, and eventually adopted McCain’s position. It took him a week to announce his strategy in the bank bailout.

    God forbid that N. Korea invades S. Korea. It took Truman only hours to commit troops when that happened in June 1950. How quickly would Obama react? You judge.

    Comment by Corky Boyd — 1/21/2009 @ 10:42 am

  25. Corky – I think it is a little more political, and less thoughtful than that. I believe that when reality sets in, some of those things that he has promised the nutroots, and some of the things that they believe they heard, will turn out to be bad decisions at best, or dangerous at worst, and he will abandon them. By kicking the can down the road, he can simply avoid doing anything. Doing nothing will be an improvement over his natural inclinations.

    Comment by JD — 1/21/2009 @ 10:52 am

  26. Another example of the sale-by date concept on his words.
    This is starting to look more and more like “The Candidate” in that there is no concept of what to do after the win…”Now what do we do?”

    Presidential candidates used to run, and enter office with, voluminous “white papers” laying out what the policies of a new administration would be, and how they would carry them out.

    It appears that President Obama has stocked his Administration with a herd of independent operators, and he believes that all he has to do is to pick and choose among the various policy options that they present to him, without any overarching policy template that they must work within.

    Of course, it is difficult to ascertain what the thrust of this Administration will be after just 24 hours, but it would have helped if he had published some kind of chart of where he wished to go other than what he put up, and constantly revised, on his website.

    It would help if he could get his ducks in a row, or at least outline in some specificity, what that row is, so that the American People who entrusted him with this responsibility to lead the Government of the United States, and present its’ face to the World, could say to themselves “Yes, that is where we want to go” and support that effort; or conversely, say “NO, that would be counter-productive” and work in opposition within the political system. But, if each morning, we awake to a new “crisis” and a new “solution” that makes the government swivel back-and-forth as a shooting-gallery duck, we will solve none of the problems that are of concern, and will most likely lengthen the distress that we are encountering.

    “There is not (or does not appear to be) any there, there”

    Comment by AD — 1/21/2009 @ 10:52 am

  27. If Obama had outlined an actual vision or policy, it could have been argued with. It might have been shown to have both positives and negatives.

    If you don’t put one forwards, people can imagine all their positives and no negatives at all because people always think that their own ideas are perfect.

    Comment by luagha — 1/21/2009 @ 11:22 am

  28. What is the point of this?

    The appearance of doing something while doing nothing. I suppose you could call it Obamism.

    Comment by Jim Treacher — 1/21/2009 @ 3:50 pm

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