Obama to Revive Gitmo Military Trials, By IslamOnline.net

OBAMA WILL ANNOUNCE a new military tribunals system that would include restrictions on the use of hearsay evidence against detainees.

CAIRO — RETURNING TO THE BUSH-ERA ANTI-TERROR MEASURES, US President Barack Obama is set to announce Friday, May 15, a resumption of controversial military trials of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay.

"(The changes are intended) to permit for greater due process for the accused so we can get what we've been looking for and what has been lacking for the last seven years, which is swift and certain justice for those who plotted and carried out attacks against our country," a senior administration official told the Washington Times on the condition of anonymity.

The official said an announcement on a new military tribunals system would be made on Friday.

The new legal framework would include restrictions on the use of hearsay evidence against detainees.

It would also reportedly ban evidence obtained through coercion, such as waterboarding and other enhanced CIA interrogation techniques.

Coming into office in January, Obama ordered all military trials at Guantanamo halted and to close the Guantanamo Bay within a year.

White House officials insisted that Obama was not overturning his election campaign pledge.

The president "never promised to abolish military commissions," an administration official said.

Military tribunals for Guantanamo detainees were established in 2006 by the Bush administration to try them under separate rules from regular civilian or military courts.

The Bush administration has declared the hundreds of detainees held at Guantanamo as unlawful enemy combatants to deny them legal rights under the American legal system.

Twenty-one people have been charged and 14 out of an estimated 245 remaining prisoners have appeared before judges.

Dismal Failure

Obama's new military trial system is drawing a fierce criticism from rights groups and detainees' lawyers.

"Everyone knows the military commissions have been a dismal failure," Gabor Rona, the international legal director of Human Rights First, told the Los Angeles Times.

"The results of the cases will be suspect around the world. It is a tragic mistake to continue them."

Tom Malinowski, the Washington advocacy director of Human Rights Watch, also criticized the Obama administration.

"I am afraid the stench of Guantanamo will remain," he said.

"Anything that goes by the name 'military commissions' will unfortunately be seen around the world as a continuation of the old system. It is the worst of possible worlds."

Lawyers for detainees said that Obama is reviving repeating the controversial policies of his predecessor.

"The Obama administration came into office promising change and now looks to be repeating the mistakes of the Bush administration," said Navy Lt. Cmdr. William C. Kuebler, who represents a young Canadian prisoner at Guantanamo.
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