12 January 2009

Obama On Gitmo

From his interview on the Snuffleluffagus show:
I think it's going to take some time and our legal teams are working in consultation with our national security apparatus as we speak to help design exactly what we need to do. It is more difficult than I think a lot of people realize. Part of the challenge that you have is that you have a bunch of folks that have been detained, many of whom may be very dangerous who have not been put on trial or have not gone through some adjudication. And some of the evidence against them may be tainted even though it's true. And so how to balance creating a process that adheres to rule of law, habeas corpus, basic principles of Anglo-American legal system, by doing it in a way that doesn't result in releasing people who are intent on blowing us up.
Fair enough. The new government can't shut down Gitmo on January 21st without any sort of plan on what to do with the people being jailed there. Where do we put them? How do we deal with the legal issues surrounding their imprisonment?

We should trust the new president to keep his word on this issue. But we should also give him the time to do it right.