[Peace-discuss] Preventive detention (like Lincoln)

[C. G. Estabrook]

[There are several possibilities here: (1) the former teacher of Constitutional 
law hasn't read the Sixth Amendment; (2) the former teacher of Constitutional 
law hasn't understood the Sixth Amendment; (3) the former teacher of 
Constitutional law has read and understood the Sixth Amendment and has chosen to 
disregard it.  Since he's sworn to uphold the Constitution and see that the laws 
are faithfully executed, his failure to do so in this case is a high crime or 
misdemeanor for which he should be removed from office.  Our failure to use the 
hoary constitutional instrument of impeachment on each of his several 
predecessors in the last twenty years can only encourage him in his 
law-breaking.  At some point we have to stop it. --CGE]

	May 21, 2009
	Obama Is Said to Consider Preventive Detention Plan
	By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

WASHINGTON — President Obama told human rights advocates at the White House on 
Wednesday that he was mulling the need for a “preventive detention” system that 
would establish a legal basis for the United States to incarcerate terrorism 
suspects who are deemed a threat to national security but cannot be tried, two 
participants in the private session said.

The discussion, in a 90-minute meeting in the Cabinet Room that included 
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and other top administration officials, came 
on the eve of a much-anticipated speech Mr. Obama is to give Thursday on a 
number of thorny national security matters, including his promise to close the 
detention center at the naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Human rights advocates are growing deeply uneasy with Mr. Obama’s stance on 
these issues, especially his recent move to block the release of photographs 
showing abuse of detainees, and his announcement that he is willing to try 
terrorism suspects in military commissions — a concept he criticized bitterly as 
a presidential candidate.

The two participants, outsiders who spoke on the condition of anonymity because 
the session was intended to be off the record, said they left the meeting dismayed.

They said Mr. Obama told them he was thinking about “the long game” — how to 
establish a legal system that would endure for future presidents. He raised the 
issue of preventive detention himself, but made clear that he had not made a 
decision on it. Several senior White House officials did not respond to requests 
for comment on the outsiders’ accounts.

“He was almost ruminating over the need for statutory change to the laws so that 
we can deal with individuals who we can’t charge and detain,” one participant 
said. “We’ve known this is on the horizon for many years, but we were able to 
hold it off with George Bush. The idea that we might find ourselves fighting 
with the Obama administration over these powers is really stunning.”

The other participant said Mr. Obama did not seem to be thinking about 
preventive detention for terrorism suspects now held at Guantánamo Bay, but 
rather for those captured in the future, in settings other than a legitimate 
battlefield like Afghanistan. “The issue is,” the participant said, “What are 
the options left open to a future president?”

Mr. Obama did not specify how he intended to deal with Guantánamo detainees who 
posed a threat and could not be tried, nor did he share the contents of 
Thursday’s speech, the participants said.

He will deliver the speech at a site laden with symbolism — the National 
Archives, home to the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Across 
town, his biggest Republican critic, former Vice President Dick Cheney, will 
deliver a speech at the American Enterprise Institute.

Mr. Cheney and other hawkish critics have sought to portray Mr. Obama as weak on 
terror, and their argument seems to be catching on with the public. On Tuesday, 
Senate Democrats, in a clear rebuke to the White House, blocked the $80 million 
Mr. Obama had requested in financing to close the Guantánamo prison.

The lawmakers say they want a detailed plan before releasing the money; there is 
deep opposition on Capitol Hill to housing terrorism suspects inside the United 
States.

“He needs to convince people that he’s got a game plan that will protect us as 
well as be fair to the detainees,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of 
South Carolina, who agrees with Mr. Obama that the prison should be closed. “If 
he can do that, then we’re back on track. But if he doesn’t make that case, then 
we’ve lost control of this debate.”

But Mr. Obama will not use the speech to provide the details lawmakers want.

“What it’s not going to be is a prescriptive speech,” said David Axelrod, Mr. 
Obama’s senior adviser. “The president wants to take some time and put this 
whole issue in perspective to identify what the challenges are and how he will 
approach dealing with them.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/us/politics/21obama.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=preventive&st=cse