Obama 'to revive military trials'

[Valerie]

It would seem that President Obama will allow Military Trials to start once again at Guantanamo Prison Camp.

Although I am a great Obama supporter I find difficoult to agree with this decision and seems to me it is a step back for the new US Administration from its electoral promises.

What are your views?

[Midas]

It would seem that President Obama will allow Military Trials to start once again at Guantanamo Prison Camp.

Although I am a great Obama supporter I find difficoult to agree with this decision and seems to me it is a step back for the new US Administration from its electoral promises.

What are your views?

I had rather hoped that following Obama's speech about Guantanamo Bay just after (?) he was inaugurated that the whole prison camp would have been emptied and any remaining prisoners transferred to mainland prisons where they could have faced normal legal proceedings a great deal faster than is happening. This looks like a bit of a U-turn, although from the article - here - it does seem as if some conditions are being improved. Reading between the lines, "... the president may have decided that trying detainees such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed - the man who allegedly planned 9/11 - in a civilian court in the US would be simply too complex and too difficult." comes over very much like "We think that by not allowing the detainees their full civil rights we stand a better chance of convicting them"! That's hardly justice in action whatever they might or might not have done.

[JAMC]

What are your views?

He can't be trusted to stick by his principles.

[Valerie]

I don't see Obama being a simplistic man and I don't want to judge him without at least trying to understand what led him to take such a decision.

Clearly the information about the "why" are limited, on the ground of their sensitivity and of national security, but I wonder if any of you could indicate what a good source of information would be? Is there a way to dig a bit deeper and also understand what changed he wants to implement to the Military Trials?

What I also find a bit concerning is that if Guantanamo bay is to be closed in 2010, surely that doesn't really leave much time. Is this an indication that the States will not go through with it? That would be a real blow for democracy and for Obama himself...

As I said, my first instict would be to be just plain disappointed, but I don't want to jump to conclusions.

[Baldilocks]

Obama is simply having to grasp certain realities .. as George W Bush did before him, in the totally realistic solution he applied to that aspect of the terrorist threat his country has, up until now, been laudably fighting.

The facts are that terrorists are DANGEROUS .. and for all his much-vaunted 'principles', it's dawned on even HIM that those terrorists are simply too dangerous to be treated in the normal way.

Note the fact that Obama's recently discovered how so many States, even those with liberal Senators, balk at any idea that they might have to take charge of some of them themselves. 'Strangely', all the previous talk about how they are 'normal' people, many of whom had been 'wronged' by being incarcerated in Gitmo, was suddenly all forgotten in the glare of the penetrating spotlight of REALITY.

A fundamental error made in debates of this sort is to suppose that Gitmo terrorists are 'normal people' .. they are nothing of the kind. Obama has probably been receiving advice and information that has made this so clear to him that, even though he dare not admit it, Bush's approach was the RIGHT ONE TO TAKE.

Gitmo, so far as I'm concerned, is a highly necessary institution (.. and in fact I'd want to see more of them opened up). It does nothing but endanger American and Western lives to close it .. and maybe Obama has discovered that for himself now.

[Ronald Reagan]

It would seem that President Obama will allow Military Trials to start once again at Guantanamo Prison Camp.

Although I am a great Obama supporter I find difficoult to agree with this decision and seems to me it is a step back for the new US Administration from its electoral promises.

What are your views?

Although, like Baldilocks, I agree with the Guantanamo Prison Camp I think this proof that Obama is just a normal politician who has to realise that he can't change the world and many of his promises were a bit far fetched. As a strong McCain supporter from the very beginning, it's good to see that people are starting to realise that he's not superman, just a normal guy. Maybe people will be so let down at the lack of "change" then they might even vote him out next election! That would be so awesome, after all revenge is a dish best served cold.

[DTE]

Gitmo, so far as I'm concerned, is a highly necessary institution (.. and in fact I'd want to see more of them opened up). It does nothing but endanger American and Western lives to close it .. and maybe Obama has discovered that for himself now.

Do you not see Baldi that places such as Gitmo whilst no doubt removing some dangerous individuals, actually further the cause of the other side in the war on terror? There are numerous cases of British and American people who have been incarcerated there only to be aquitted of any wrongdoing when released later, and for every innocent person they lock up, they leave a whole host of others campagining against the place. Not to mention the familes and friends of people who have committed crimes, by denying them due process and in some cases not even informing them of the people who have otherwise 'disappeared' it justs fuels the fire over the argument that the US is the agressor in this war.