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THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW - August 12, 2010
ACLU Scorecard: Obama Is Embracing Abusive Bush Policies
by: Deb Weinstein
truthout - Report
For disillusioned Obama supporters, the ACLU's July report
"Establishing the New Normal" is not a heartening read.
After being voted into office on promises that included
undoing abuses carried out under the Bush administration -
promises to protect privacy, to end government-sanctioned
torture and rendition programs and to end the use of
military commissions for non-enemy combatants - President
Obama's administration is proving it is far easier to tow
the line than buck a trend.
According to a report by the ACLU, the current White House
has not just failed to meaningfully follow through on its
promises, but has also taken abusive policies, and, as
shown in the case of targeted and interminable detentions,
eroded civil rights to unprecedented levels.
Although the ACLU applauds the administration's condemn-
ation of the torture and rendition programs instituted
under Bush, it says these positive steps are overwhelmed
by what remains uncorrected and unaddressed. Using the
CIA's destruction of 92 interrogation tapes as an example,
the ACLU says that an investigation into the incident -
which was approved by a CIA official and is purported to
have erased torturous interrogations carried about by
Americans - has dragged on for three years with no
resolution in sight The length of time is a minor issue
compared with what the ACLU says such foot dragging
signifies: "Sanctioning impunity for government officials
who authorized torture."
Fear of an unchecked, unaccountable government permeates
the ACLU's report, particularly in the section about
targeted killings. In this instance, it is not just that
the Obama administration has continued a policy of target-
ing alleged terrorists, but that it has a new wrinkle:
American citizens, such as Anwar al-Awlaki, are also being
rounded up in the "O.K.-to-kill" list. The shortfalls of
this approach are many, and the ACLU says that the
inaccuracy of less life-and-death approaches should make
such an approach intolerable. "Over the last eight years,
we have seen the government over and over again detain men
as 'terrorists,' only to discover later that the evidence
was weak, wrong, or non-existent," the report says.
When the accused do have legal recourse, the ACLU says the
administration is also failing, and the two-tier court
system available to detainees - federal courts and military
commissions - does little to showcase the United States'
legal system as fair and just. Instead, the ACLU says the
biased military commission system, which has a lower
evidence standard and allows anonymous, third-party
testimony, is also inhumane because abuse during detention
or abuse during interrogations do not disqualify testimony.
The ACLU says even the federal court system is tainted
because it is used at the government's discretion, and
even then, only when the defense thinks losing its case
is impossible.
The report also takes aim at detention itself. According
to both the ACLU and the Department of Justice's January
2010 Guantanamo Review Task Force report, there are
Yemenis, who in the parlance of the Department of Justice,
are eligible for "conditional detainment," and in the
language of the ACLU, "have been cleared for release after
years of harsh detention." These Yemenis can only be
released under the following conditions: if there is an
appropriate rehabilitation program for the detainees when
and if they return home; if they cannot be repatriated
to Yemen, that the third-party country has sufficient
security. But first, the US has to revoke the moratorium
on their release. The ACLU says, however, that this problem
is not confined to Yemenis at Guantanamo, nor does blame
rest solely with the president. The ACLU says Congress
has also helped keep individuals, specifically Chinese
Uighers, from being released.
The ACLU also asserts that the current administration has
allowed the rules of detention to morph beyond reasonable
limits such as geography to the point that individuals can
be picked up in areas that are not war zones, transported
to detention centers that are in war zones, and then,
based on the location of their detention, treated as though
they were captured in battle areas. Such power, the ACLU
says, makes everyone a combatant. The ACLU indicates the
domestic impact of this logic could erase civil rights,
particularly if a Thompson, Illinois, prison becomes a
holding place for Guantanamo detainees. "We fear that if
precedent is established that terrorism suspects can be
held without trial in the United States, this administr-
ation and future administrations will be tempted to bypass
routinely the constitutional restraints of the criminal
justice system," the report says.
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