I really hate this

[solarbird]

Mr. Obama doesn't think he'll get what he wants out of Congress, so he's reportedly planning to adopt the Bush position and just issue an executive order saying the government can hold people indefinitely without trial.

White House Considers Executive Order on Indefinite Detention of Terror Suspects
Officials: Move Would Reassert Power To Hold Terror Suspects Indefinitely
By Dafna Linzer and Peter Finn
ProPublica and Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 27, 2009

Obama administration officials, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, are crafting language for an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely, according to three senior government officials with knowledge of White House deliberations.

Such an order would embrace claims by former president George W. Bush that certain people can be detained without trial for long periods under the laws of war.

More on Mr. Obama's various actions embracing Bush administration policies here, and here, the latter being Bob Herbert:

Americans should recoil as one against the idea of preventive detention, imprisoning people indefinitely, for years and perhaps for life, without charge and without giving them an opportunity to demonstrate their innocence.

And yet we’ve embraced it, asserting that there are people who are far too dangerous to even think about releasing but who cannot be put on trial because we have no real evidence that they have committed any crime, or because we’ve tortured them and therefore the evidence would not be admissible, or whatever. President Obama is O.K. with this (he calls it “prolonged detention”), but he wants to make sure it is carried out — here comes the oxymoron — fairly and nonabusively.

Proof of guilt? In 21st-century America, there is no longer any need for such annoyances.

Comments

[cafiorello.livejournal.com]

fsck!

[nojay.livejournal.com]

From politico.com's 44 diary section dated June 26.
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A White House official disputes the accuracy of the WaPo-ProPublica report that the administration has drafted an order to hold some detainees indefinitely. "There is no draft executive order," the aide said. "The task force has not finished its work on these issues." --Josh Gerstein
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On the one hand you have three anonymous "senior government officials with knowledge of White House deliberations" who claim without presenting any evidence that the White House staff is drafting an executive order on indefinite detention. Note that they are not part of the White House staff, only that they have unspecified knowledge of White House deliberations. On the other hand you have a named White House spokesman stating that there is no draft executive order.

Your call.

[nojay.livejournal.com]

Sorry, correction -- Josh Gerstien is a reporter for Politico. His name attached to the statement was a byline, not an identification of who presented the statement.

[solarbird]

That's how trial balloons usually work. They're seeing what they can get away with.

And, of course, all of this is part of the culture of anonymity in the political press. They enable this.