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Does the Obama administration ever get tired of getting things wrong? As their public support drains from the health-care overhaul they’ve pushed for the last several months, they have managed to find another way to marginalize themselves with the American public. By overwhelming numbers in the latest Gallup survey, Americans disapprove of the decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a federal court — and can barely get a majority of Democrats to support it: By 59% to 36%, more Americans believe accused Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed should be tried in a military court, rather than in a...

People in the Obama Administration, down to NYC Boss Bloomberg, and ended with leftist bloggers say all that “we need to try the terror leaders in NY in order for them to stand trial in the very city they committed their crimes.” This is the main talking point that we keep hearing from those who support bringing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to NY. The rational of “the same city as they committed the crimes” is certainly a feel-good approach, but if this is the underlying reason, why does not the Defense Department bring over a military commission, set them up in...

Now that we have seen the demonstrated support of Tea parties both at the local Congressional level and at the level of the Federal government in Washington, it is time to begin Peoples' Tribunals. These would be investigative at first, with people summoned to give testimony about government wrongdoing and abuse of power - most notably acting contrary to the Constitution. We can begin with a national tribunal that investigates ACORN and its voter fraud in the last (and previous) elections. Those appointed to sit on these Tribunals would be seriously vetted to make sure there are no plants from...

Candidate Barack Obama severely criticized president Bush for using military tribunals to try terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay. On President Obama's first day in office, he suspended the tribunals. Now, he has decided to use the same military tribunals he criticized President Bush for during the 2008 campaign. His backers on the Loony left are very angry.

Cheney antiterror policies are by now routine: for example, opposing the release of prisoner abuse photographs and support for indefinite detention for some detainees, and that's just this week. More remarkable is White House creativity in portraying these U-turns as epic change. Witness yesterday's announcement endorsing military commissions. White House officials insist that their tribunals will be kinder and gentler, stressing additional due-process safeguards for terrorists on trial for war crimes. But the debate that has convulsed the political system since 9/11 isn't about procedural nuances. It has been over core principles, with Democrats decrying a "shadow justice system" and...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama is planning on Friday to resume the Bush administration's controversial military commission system for some Guantanamo detainees -- which he suspended in his first week in office -- according to three administration officials.Some of the high-profile terror suspects who are being charged in the military commission process include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-confessed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. The administration officials stressed that the updated system will include expanded due-process rights for the suspects, which administration officials note is consistent with what Obama pushed for as a senator in 2006 in order to improve upon...

(Washington) - In response to President Barack Obama restarting the military commissions at the U.S.-controlled detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Amnesty International's executive director Larry Cox issued the following statement: "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. “Whatever revisions the Obama administration has made to the commissions do not change...

President Barack Obama faced condemnation today as he announced he was restarting military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay, reviving the system he once labelled "an enormous failure". The trial process, set up by his predecessor George W. Bush for fighters captured on the battlefields of Afghanistan in late 2001, was attacked by human rights organisations because it barred defendants from many of the rights they would have in a civilian courtroom. But Mr Obama said in a statement, the tribunals would resume with modifications to make them fairer. "Military commissions have a long tradition in the United States. They are appropriate...

On his second day in office, President Obama ordered the Pentagon to mothball Guantanamo within one year, purportedly to reclaim the "moral high ground." That earned applause from the anti-antiterror squadrons, yet it is now causing all kinds of practical and political problems in what used to be known as the war on terror. This mess grew even more chaotic this week, when Democrats refused the Administration's $50 million budget request to transfer some of the remaining 241 Gitmo detainees to a prison likely to be somewhere in the U.S. and perhaps to a new one built with taxpayer dollars....

Criticizes Obama's Terrorism Policies http://www.thebulletin.us/articles/2009/02/10/top_stories/doc49913ba1e7c0e951117995.txt

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - U.S. military officers responsible for defending Guantanamo detainees said they will investigate why five men accused in the Sept. 11 attacks were allowed to talk among themselves at their arraignment, allegedly pressuring one of the defendants to reject his lawyers. All five said they would represent themselves in the death penalty trial, the first U.S. attempt to prosecute those believed to be directly responsible for killing 2,973 people in the bloodiest terrorist attacks ever on U.S. soil. None entered pleas, and two said they hope to become martyrs for their anti-American cause. Lawyers for...

Sault Ste. Marie is home to the 49th Field Artillery Regiment - an active reserve unit with the Royal Canadian Artillery. (Full disclosure: Although I am writing in my civilian capacity as an editorialist, I happen to be a junior reserve officer with the regiment.) Local artillery soldiers are serving near the front-lines in Afghanistan as you read this, often coming under fire from the Taliban, and and using their artillery to provide cover to front-line soldiers. If the guns fail, soldiers die. So why are we permitting the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal to play identity politics with their lives?

SAULT STE. MARIE, Ontario -- Three Muslim women in Canada have filed a human rights complaint against Syed Soharwardy, the Alberta-based imam who brought publisher Ezra Levant before the Alberta Human Rights Commission after Mr. Levant's magazine republished the Danish Muhammad cartoons. Qasira Shaheen, Robina Butt and Shugufta Iftikhar filed their complaint, dated Dec. 28, with the Canadian Human Rights Commission, saying they "were treated differently from men in the following manner: Abusive language uttered towards us; Not permitted to ask any questions; Denied participation as equal members of the Muslim community; Physically and verbally threatened; Made to sit in...

WASHINGTON, March 12, 2007 – Administrative tribunals were held March 9 and 10 for three of the 14 high-value detainees being held at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Defense Department announced today. Combatant Status Review Tribunal proceedings were held March 10 for Khalid Sheik Mohamed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Bryan Whitman, Pentagon spokesman, told reporters. March 9 proceedings were for Abu Faraj al-Libi, an alleged senior member of al Qaeda, and Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, who is said to have helped Mohamed plan the Sept. 11 attacks. Combatant Status Review...

WASHINGTON, March 6, 2007 – The Defense Department announced today that administrative tribunals will begin March 9 for 14 high-value detainees transferred in September to the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Combatant Status Review Tribunals, which determine whether or not a detainee can be qualified as an enemy combatant, will be held at Guantanamo Bay without media coverage, Bryan Whitman, a DoD spokesman, told reporters. There is no time limit for the completion of the tribunals, but all 14 high-value detainees will go through the process, as all other detainees at Guantanamo Bay have, he said....

For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary February 14, 2007 Executive Order Trial of Alien Unlawful Enemy Combatants by Military Commission By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (Public Law 109‑366), the Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107-40), and section 948b(b) of title 10, United States Code, it is hereby ordered as follows: Section 1. Establishment of Military Commissions. There are hereby established military commissions to try alien unlawful enemy combatants for offenses triable by...

WASHINGTON (AP) - 0928dv-detainee-senate President Bush can count on Congress for the sort of military tribunals he wants, although the White House likely will have to await a lame duck session after the election to get authorization for warrantless wiretaps. Both chambers this week approved legislation that sets up "military commissions" to prosecute terrorists. It also would prohibit the severe abuse of detainees, like mutilation and rape, but grant the president leeway to decide which other interrogation techniques are permissible. The Senate's 65-34 vote on Thursday followed a House vote of 253-168 on a nearly identical measure a day earlier....

The World Trade Organisation's Appellate Body, reversing an earlier panel report, on Tuesday ruled that the U.S. method for calculating anti-dumping duties on softwood lumber imports violated global free trade rules. A WTO dispute panel on April 3 rejected a challenge brought by Canada against a U.S. method known as "zeroing" for calculating anti-dumping duties on billions of dollars worth of softwood lumber imports. But in a 60-page ruling issued on Tuesday, the three judges on the WTO's Appellate Body -- its highest arbitration court -- found that the use of zeroing was inconsistent with the WTO's Anti-Dumping Agreement. "The...

House Republicans signaled a coming clash with the Senate over the future of military tribunals yesterday when Armed Service Committee members indicated they were inclined to give the Bush administration largely what it wants in the conduct of terrorism trials. The tone at the first House hearing since the Supreme Court tossed out President Bush's tribunals last month was markedly different from Tuesday's Senate hearing, where lawmakers from both parties said they wanted to make significant changes to the White House's plans. "This could be easy," said Rep. Candice S. Miller (R-Mich.), who proudly announced she has neither a law...

WASHINGTON, July 12, 2006 – Military tribunals -- not courts-martial or civilian court procedures -- are the best way to try enemy combatants for war crimes, a senior defense official told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday. Daniel J. Dell'Orto, the Defense Department's principal deputy general counsel, testified before the committee as it considers the best way to try detainees after the U.S. Supreme Court voted down the use of military tribunals under existing law. During yesterday's hearing, Dell'Orto pointed to the country's history of convening criminal tribunals other than courts-martial in wartime that dates back to the Revolutionary...

A leading Senate Republican said Friday that he was not sure that Congress should pass legislation to create new military tribunals for terror suspects, a stance that raised doubts about prospects for a White House plan to establish an alternative to the commissions struck down this week by the Supreme Court. The senator, John W. Warner of Virginia, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said he had not yet decided what course Congress should take. But Mr. Warner, who will preside over hearings on the issue in July, said he was concerned that new tribunals, even if authorized by...

The US government said it could not find the men that Guantánamo detainee Abdullah Mujahid believes could help set him free. The Guardian found them in three days. Two years ago the US military invited Mr Mujahid, a former Afghan police commander accused of plotting against the United States, to prove his innocence before a special military tribunal. As was his right, Mr Mujahid called four witnesses from Afghanistan. But months later the tribunal president returned with bad news: the witnesses could not be found. Mr Mujahid's hopes sank and he was returned to the wire-mesh cell where he remains...

WASHINGTON, June 29, 2006 – Today's Supreme Court decision specifically invites the administration to work with Congress to change the law so it can try some detainees through military tribunals, senior officials from the Departments of Justice and Defense said today. The Supreme Court ruled 5-3 this morning that military commissions for detainees charged with war crimes would violate the Uniform Code of Military Justice as well as four Geneva Conventions. While ruling against military tribunals for detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as they currently stand, the court's decision notes that "nothing prevents the administration from going to Congress...

WASHINGTON, June 29, 2006 – The U.S. government is evaluating today's Supreme Court ruling against military tribunals for detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to find the best avenue forward, President Bush said today. The Supreme Court ruled 5-3 this morning that "the military commission at issue lacks the power to proceed because it violates both the (Uniform Code of Military Justice) and the four Geneva Conventions in 1949." Bush, speaking today at a news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, reacted to questions about to the decision in Handan v. Rumsfeld. The high court issued its ruling during Bush's...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the Bush administration did not have the legal authority to go forward with military tribunals for detainees at the Guantanamo Bay military base in Cuba. The 5-3 ruling means officials will either have to come up with new procedures to prosecute at least 10 so-called enemy combatants awaiting trial, or release them from U.S. military custody. The case was a major test of President Bush's authority as commander in chief in a wartime setting. Bush has aggressively asserted the power of the government to capture, detain, and prosecute suspected...

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that President Bush overstepped his authority in ordering military war crimes trials for Guantanamo Bay detainees. The ruling, a rebuke to the administration and its aggressive anti-terror policies, was written by Justice John Paul Stevens, who said the proposed trials were illegal under U.S. law and international Geneva conventions.

The U.S. Supreme Court is preparing a potential landmark ruling that could determine the fate of the military tribunals created by President George W. Bush to try Guantanamo prisoners for war crimes. The ruling by the nation's highest court, which is expected later this week, will be one of the most significant presidential war powers cases since World War Two and could determine whether the tribunals are lawful. No one outside the court knows which day the ruling will come or how the justices will decide the myriad of issues in a challenge to the tribunals by Guantanamo prisoner Salim...

The Zacarias Moussaoui legal circus may finally soon leave town, though not without teaching everyone a few lessons about terrorists and civilian courts. In the more than four years since he was charged with six counts of conspiracy related to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the "20th hijacker" has mocked the U.S. criminal justice system. He finally pleaded guilty last year, and this week at his sentencing trial the al Qaeda operative got some help from an unexpected quarter--the U.S. government. A lawyer working for the prosecution was found to have improperly coached several key government witnesses, leading Judge Leonie Brinkema...

snip In a major ruling that ultimately may be tested in the Supreme Court, the D.C. Circuit on Friday upheld the military tribunals set up by the Bush Administration to try terrorism suspects for war crimes. It decided that Congress' post-Sept. 11 terrorism resolution and two federal laws "authorized the military commission that will try {Salim Ahmed] Hamdan." It also ruled that the Geneva Convention on prisoners of war gave Hamdan no right to enforce that treaty's provisions in court. snip This is the first major opinion joined in by Circuit Judge John G. Roberts, who often is rumored to...

BREAKING NEWS [Shannen Coffin] In Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, decided today, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court ruling that invalidated a military tribunal against a detainee at GTMO, who just happened to have been Osama's personal driver. In short, court held that commissions were authorized by Congress's post-9/11 authorization of the use of force, that the Geneva Convention was not enforceable in federal court, and even if it was, it didn't provide "prisoner of war" protection to an unlawful combatant like Hamdan.

Detainees first were flown to the U.S. Naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan in January 2002. The Bush administration considered them enemy fighters with no recourse to the U.S. legal system because they were foreigners held on foreign soil. In July 2004, the U.S. government hastily began holding "combatant status review tribunals" to determine whether hundreds of detainees should be classified as "enemy combatants." The move came a month after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the detainees could challenge their detentions without charge or trial in U.S. courts. Dozens of cases are pending. Tribunals...

...Today, government lawyers will ask a federal appeals court in Washington to reverse a November ruling that found the Geneva Convention protects prisoners held at Guantanamo and ordered an immediate halt to military commission proceedings against detainees because they didn't comply with the treaty.... The records make it clear that after World War II, U.S. military prosecutors and judges set out to establish a precedent barring any prisoner mistreatment, by aggressively pursuing and punishing even comparatively small offenses. ..."Extreme brutality or serious injury to the victim is not a necessary element" for guilt.... Historically, such "unlawful" combatants "not only would...

POPE JOHN PAUL II'S HEAVIEST CROSS: THE DISOBEDIENT CLERICS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

...Ashcroft.... will go down in history as the Attorney General who led the legal fight against terrorism. Every wartime AG has had to make tough calls about the balance between civil liberties and national security, and in a better world Mr. Ashcroft would be retiring to bipartisan accolades for taking on these difficult issues.... Yet no one in this Administration has endured more personal and political abuse. Granted Mr. Ashcroft isn't the smoothest public spokesman, and his cultural conservatism and strict interpretations of the law on the death penalty, partial-birth abortion and sentencing guidelines incensed liberals.... The irony is that...

...Mr. Gonzales has many things going for him, not least his relationship with the President, whom he has served for more than a decade starting in Texas. These personal ties -- much like those between Californians Ed Meese and Ronald Reagan -- will give him a stronger influence in the Cabinet than Mr. Ashcroft had. But his job will nonetheless be to build on the Ashcroft legacy. That includes moving ahead with terror cases, riding hard on the FBI as it reshapes itself to fight terrorists, and working for the renewal of the Patriot Act, portions of which expire next...

Judges and defense lawyers at Guantánamo tribunals argued over whether terrorism should be defined as a war crime. GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- Arguing that the Nuremburg tribunals established genocide as an international crime 60 years ago, the colonel presiding over the first U.S. war-crimes court since World War II left open the possibility Tuesday that terrorism could debut as a valid war crime at Guantánamo Bay. Defense lawyers argued in pretrial hearings for Australian captive David Hicks, 29, that the Bush administration has retroactively and illegally invented terrorism as a catchall war crime for al Qaeda detainees held...

Two Afghan men have denied being enemy fighters in appearances before US military tribunals reviewing the status of Guantanamo Bay detainees. For the first time, the US allowed journalists to attend the hearings. The men, both handcuffed and shackled, admitted they were with the Taleban but said they never fought US forces. Their requests to call witnesses were denied. The US insists the process to determine whether the men are being held legally as enemy combatants is fair. The tribunals, which have been running since Friday, were instigated after the US Supreme Court ruled that the prisoners could challenge...

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba -- The Pentagon announced today that it has formed a five-member military tribunal to try three terrorism suspects held at this U.S. naval base. The Pentagon's announcement came a day after the Supreme Court issued a ruling that prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay should have access to U.S. civilian courts to appeal their detention -- a decision considered a major blow for President Bush's stance that the United States can jail suspects without judicial review. The trials -- of an Australian, a Sudanese and a Yemeni -- would be the first of any of the...

The U.S. Defense Department says President Bush has designated nine more terrorism suspects as subject to trial by a military tribunal. In a statement released Wednesday, the Pentagon said the president determined that each of the suspects belonged to the al-Qaida terrorist network, or otherwise "involved in terrorism directed against the United States." The statement said no charges have yet been filed against the detainees, none of whom were identified. President Bush signed a military order in November 2001 that makes so-called enemy combatants eligible for military trials. The Supreme Court ruled last month that terrorist suspects held at the...

Five decades ago, Nazi case set precedent for military tribunals Connie Cass THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Tuesday, July 06, 2004 - 12:00 AM WASHINGTON -- A German submarine slipped through dark waters toward New York's Long Island in June 1942, creeping so close it bumped the sandy bottom. A second settled into shallows along the Florida coast. Each sent ashore four men, who dragged crates of explosives up the beaches. They were under orders to blow up American railroads, bridges and factories. But none got the chance. All eight were arrested within two weeks. Within two months, six were executed. They...

A US Marine Corps defence lawyer has condemned the total lack of justice shown by his government in dealing with an Australian detainee at Guantanamo. Speaking to journalists in Australia on Tuesday, Major Michael Mori said David Hicks was facing a military tribunal rigged to get convictions in which there was no right of an independent appeal. "Everyone is so emotionally charged by September 11 that they are eager to label people a terrorist without using an established justice system to determine innocence or guilt." Hicks is one of the few detainees at Guantanamo to have been appointed a legal...

A deadlock over the formation of a new Cambodian government is threatening to derail plans to try surviving members of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime for genocide and crimes against humanity. More than five months after general elections, the ruling Cambodian People's Party and the two biggest opposition parties are still at loggerheads over the establishment of a coalition government required by the country's constitution. Senior legal officials have warned that unless a political compromise is reached within the next few weeks, plans to start the trial this year of up to 10 former leaders of the regime blamed for...

Saddam Hussein has been captured. How will he, and other members of his regime, be brought to justice? The United States could defer to a newly formed Iraqi court system, or lead the way through Coalition trials. These, and all options -- except for the International Criminal Court -- should be considered. Though, in the end, the Iraqi judicial system should be given preference once it is capable of handling the matter in a fair and just manner. History offers a lesson. After World War II, the Allies used three different judicial mechanisms: - Nuremberg trials. Most prominently, the war’s...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- The U.S.-backed Iraqi Governing Council voted Monday to create an Iraqi-led tribunal to prosecute human rights abuses committed under Saddam Hussein. The tribunal, which might eventually try Saddam among others, promises justice for oppressed Iraqis. Several top Baath Party members are now in coalition hands though it is unclear who among them will be tried. Saddam himself is believed to be at large. Some critics, however, question the unelected council's authority to create such a tribunal and its reticence to seek international assistance in forming it. "Setting up a tribunal to try the former leaders...

Critics of Bush's Executive Order Ignore Constitution, History, Law and Justice Military Tribunals: Constitutional, Legal and Just By Terence P. Jeffrey The Week of November 26, 2001 President Bush signed an executive order November 13 authorizing military tribunals—rather than civilian courts—to try foreign terrorists accused of attacking the United States. The order does not apply to U.S. citizens. Liberals and conservatives alike have attacked this order, alleging it violates the spirit, if not the letter, of the Constitution. But President Bush’s directive not only is good policy, it is also good law. It is good policy because it logically follows ...

LAWYERS expressed outrage yesterday at plans to put al-Qaeda suspects, including two Britons and an Australian, on military trial in Guantanamo Bay. They would effectively be tried by a “kangaroo court”, stripped of all basic rights of due process that would be afforded in criminal courts in Britain or America, they said. No charges have yet been levelled against Moazzem Begg from Birmingham or Feroz Abbasi from Croydon, although Pentagon lawyers are finalising the wording of the indictments. Matthias Kelly, QC, chairman of the Bar of England and Wales, said that the proposed trials were “totally illegitimate and a violation...

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP)- The United States has barred American lawyers from representing war crimes suspects at the U.N. tribunal for Yugoslavia, a court document said Wednesday. An executive order is aimed a cutting off support to about 200 people and organizations in the former Yugoslavia blacklisted by the U.S. government. It outlaws providing goods, services and funds to those people. In Washington, Treasury Department (news - web sites) spokesman Taylor Griffin said that the list of banned activities includes providing legal services to people on the blacklist. However, Griffin said lawyers could apply for permission from the government to...

War Crimes TrialsBy Paul RosenzweigThe Heritage Foundation | April 23, 2003 Baghdad has fallen. The war is nearly over now and the time will soon come to assess the actions of Iraq’s former leaders. Coalition forces reportedly carry a “deck of cards” with the pictures of 55 Iraqi leaders of the regime and orders to pursue, capture, or kill them. Several of these leaders have already surrendered or been captured. Thousands more as-yet-unidentified Iraqis will doubtless also be pursued for their role in the brutal Saddam state. Once captured, how should they be brought to justice? History offers a lesson.After...

<p>Coalition forces have discovered numerous torture chambers used by Saddam Hussein's secret police and political operatives to silence opponents, as well as mass graves where executed dissidents were buried.</p> <p>"The whole range of what we expected to find, unfortunately we've found," said a State Department official.</p>