Obama revives terror tribunals, alarming liberals

May 16, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) — As a candidate, Barack Obama reviled the military trials for terror suspects at Guantanamo. As commander in chief, he’s bringing them back — with crucial changes he says will “protect our country while upholding our deeply held values.”

The White House said he was not embracing the Bush-era system since the courts would be so significantly changed. Unconvinced, many Obama supporters expressed dismay.

The president’s announcement Friday, in a three-paragraph written statement, also could jeopardize his promised timetable for closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by January.

Now, after the detainees are given stronger legal protections — a ban on evidence obtained under cruel duress, for example — the trials of 13 defendants in nine cases will be restarted no sooner than September. Five of the 13 are charged with helping orchestrate the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The rest of the 241 Guantanamo detainees will either be released, transferred to other countries, tried in civilian U.S. federal courts or, potentially, held indefinitely as prisoners of war with full Geneva Conventions rights.

“This is the best way to protect our country, while upholding our deeply held values,” Obama said in his statement.

However, his action was almost instantly denounced by a host of liberal-leaning groups that championed his presidential campaign last year.

“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,” said Amnesty International executive director Larry Cox.

“There is no such thing as ‘due process light,’” said American Civil Liberties Union executive director Anthony D. Romero.

“As a constitutional lawyer, Obama must know that he can put lipstick on this pig — but it will always be a pig,” said Zachary Katznelson, legal director of Reprieve, a London-based legal action charity that represents 33 Guantanamo detainees.

Obama’s announcement was greeted more warmly on Capitol Hill, where he will need broad support to quickly push through tribunal changes. The White House hopes to do so before mid-September, when a new 120-day freeze the president put on the cases Friday runs out.

The Democratic chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Carl Levin, D-Mich., called the changes “essential in order to address the serious deficiencies in existing procedures.” Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell said the announcement was an “encouraging development.”

“By taking this action, President Obama has reinforced that we are at war, and that the laws of war should apply to these prisoners,” said Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.

The tribunal system was established after the military began taking detainees from the battlefields of Afghanistan in late 2001. But the process immediately and repeatedly was challenged by human-rights and legal organizations for denying defendants rights they would be granted in most other courts.

As a senator, Obama voted for one version of the tribunal law that gave detainees additional rights, but then voted against the more-limited 2006 legislation that ultimately became law. Friday’s changes restore some of those rights, including:

URestrictions on hearsay evidence that can be used in court against the detainees.

UA ban on all evidence obtained through cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

UGiving detainees greater leeway in choosing their own military counsel.