This didn’t go without notice, I see.
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.
It has been noted by John Cole, Glenn Greenwald, and who knows how many others.
So, as long we are beating our Constitution to death, I may as well put in my two cents…
The very heart of President Obama’s “preventive detention” comes down to three basic facts:
1) That prisoners were tortured, confessions coerced, making any evidence gained through interrogation useless in a civilian court
2) That prisoners were incarcerated based on little, if any, real evidence, certainly not enough to try these individuals in a civilian court
3) That President Obama cannot follow the rule of law, ie, try the individuals in a civilian court, knowing the cases will fall apart and the prisoners ordered released by the court without the GOP and media throwing the end-all of hissy fits
The problem is not that these individuals are some new phenomenon. They aren’t. Terrorists have been arrested, tried in court, and sentenced for their crimes for many decades.
However, this very idea of “preventive detention” totally renders the 4th Amendment, 5th Amendment, and 6th Amendments to irrelevancy.