HUMAN RIGHTS groups have condemned President Barack Obama’s decision to revive military commissions devised by the Bush administration to try detainees at Guantánamo Bay.
The president said yesterday that he would modify the tribunals’ rules, banning evidence obtained through coercion, limiting the use of hearsay evidence and giving detainees more latitude in choosing an attorney.
“These reforms will begin to restore the commissions as a legitimate forum for prosecution, while bringing them in line with the rule of law. In addition, we will work with the Congress on additional reforms that will permit commissions to prosecute terrorists effectively,” Mr Obama said in a statement. “This is the best way to protect our country, while upholding our deeply held values.”
Mr Obama criticised the use of military tribunals at Guantánamo during last year’s election campaign and he suspended them the day after he took office as president. Amnesty International yesterday accused the president of playing politics with the rule of law.
“President Obama is reinstating the same deeply-flawed military commissions that in June 2008 he called an ‘enormous failure’. In one swift move, Obama both backtracks on a major campaign promise to change the way the United States fights terrorism and undermines the nation’s core respect for the rule of law by sacrificing due process for political expediency,” the group said.
The American Civil Liberties Union described the military tribunals as inherently illegitimate and unconstitutional, so that tweaking the rules could not make them acceptable.
“If the administration’s proposed rules really bring these proceedings in line with constitutional requirements, there is no reason not to use our tried and true justice system. If they don’t, these tribunals have no place in our democracy,” the group said in a statement.
“In this case, President Obama would do well to remember his own infamous words during his presidential campaign: ‘you can’t put lipstick on a pig’.”
Mr Obama’s former presidential rival, Arizona senator John McCain, praised the decision to revive the tribunals, noting that numerous issues about the future of Guantánamo detainees remained to be resolved.
“Today’s announcement is a step – but only a step – toward a comprehensive detainee policy that will deal with the detainees held at Guantánamo and elsewhere in a fashion that both accords with our values and protects our national security.”
Yesterday’s reversal follows Mr Obama’s about-turn this week on the publication of photographs showing US forces ill-treating detainees in Afghanistan and Iraq. The president bowed to pressure from military commanders to block the release of the pictures, which were due to be published later this month.
Mr Obama is resisting calls from Democrats in Congress for a truth commission to investigate the torture of detainees under the Bush administration.
CIA director Leon Panetta yesterday rejected an assertion by House speaker Nancy Pelosi that the agency lied to Congress in September 2002 about the use of waterboarding. Ms Pelosi said this week that the CIA told her that, although the technique had been approved, it had not been used.
“Let me be clear: It is not our policy or practice to mislead Congress. That is against our laws and our values,” Mr Panetta said in a statement.
“As the agency indicated previously in response to congressional inquiries, our contemporaneous records from September 2002 indicate that CIA officers briefed truthfully on the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, describing ‘the enhanced techniques that had been employed’. Ultimately, it is up to Congress to evaluate all the evidence and reach its own conclusions about what happened.”
Former Republican House speaker Newt Gingrich launched a blistering attack on Ms Pelosi, describing her as a trivial politician whose behaviour dishonoured Congress.
“I think she has lied to the House, and I think that the House has an absolute obligation to open an inquiry, and I hope there will be a resolution to investigate her.”