Barack Obama
Obama: Indefinitely Holding Detainees 'Gives Me Huge Pause'
By Michael D. Shear
President Obama still has reservations about the prospect of indefinitely holding those detained at the Guantanamo Bay military prison, and he may not follow through on his administration's intention to develop such a policy, he told the Associated Press today.
"It gives me huge pause," he told the news organization in an interview.
Obama's intention to close the detention facility in Cuba -- announced on his first full day in office -- has forced difficult decisions about what to do with the detainees still there. The administration is trying to send some to other countries and hopes to try others in courts or military tribunals.
But the president has acknowledged that there are likely to be some who won't be taken by other countries and are impossible to try. He told the AP that he will not establish an indefinite detention system by executive order because that would cut Congress out of the process.
"We're going to proceed very carefully on this front, and it may turn out that, after looking at all the dimensions of this, that I don't feel comfortable with" it, Obama said.
In the wide-ranging interview, Obama also discussed the late Michael Jackson with the AP, calling him "one of our greatest entertainers" and adding that he still had "all his stuff on my iPod." But he called Jackson's life tragic and sad in many ways.
He also weighed in on the important question of whether he is a bigger fan of retired basketball player Michael Jordan or current star Kobe Bryant.
"Michael," he told the AP without hesitation. "I haven't seen anybody match up with Jordan yet."
Posted at 3:54 PM ET on Jul 2, 2009
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Posted by: scrivener50 | July 3, 2009 12:28 AM
As someone who supposedly taught constitutional law and therefore should know at least a little about the Constitution, including the worries many of the founding fathers has about potential abuses of power by the executive branch, the notion of indefinite detention should give Obama "huge pause." The practice of indefinite detention is one of the hallmarks of an authoritarian regime.
The Bush-Cheney administration, as many have observed, had authoritarian tendencies. Obama, in the interest of upholding the rule of law and the Constitution, as well as reversing trends toward authoritarian rule, should end indefinite detention. Put those detained on trial. Those found guilty will be in secure prisons in this country.
Posted by: Aprogressiveindependent | July 2, 2009 4:33 PM
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"Huge pause" -- ?
There should be no pause.
The "con" in "Con law" should just stand for "constitutional" and not something else.
***
POTUS CO-OPTED INTO BECOMING ENABLER-IN-CHIEF FOR SECRETIVE MULTI-AGENCY VIGILANTE 'GESTAPO'
• Bush-legacy extrajudicial targeting/punishment network makes a mockery of the rule of law at the grassroots -- violating civil and human rights.
• Is Team Obama unaware, naive -- or purposely misled by Bush holdovers?
President Obama is being co-opted into becoming the enabler of a federally-funded and overseen "multi-agency coordinated action" program of nationwide extrajudicial targeting and punishment...
...a vigilante Gestapo that is misusing federally-funded volunteer programs to subvert the rule of law -- deploying a civilian vigilante army that covertly implants GPS tracking devices to stalk, persecute, vandalize and harass unjustly targeted citizens and their families.
This secretive multi-agency "program" also misuses government surveillance operations to censor, and maliciously tamper with, the telecommunications of many thousands of the unjustly targeted -- and funnels surveillance data to citizen "gang stalker" harassers.
An array of "programs of personal financial destruction" decimates the finances of "target" families -- contributing to economic distress. And microwave "directed energy weapons" are being used to degrade their very lives -- a gross violation of human rights, government-enabled crimes against humanity.
And no authorities will investigate -- invoking the "Gulag" tactic of dismissing those who seek justice as "delusional."
Please, Team Obama: Wake up and smell the police state that is co-opting your administration and making POTUS a pitchman and enabler for an American Gestapo.
http://nowpublic.com/world/gestapo-usa-govt-funded-vigilante-network-terrorizes-america
OR (if link is corrupted / disabled):
http://My.NowPublic.com/scrivener