ACLU Scorecard: Obama Is Embracing Abusive Bush Policies
Tuesday 10 August 2010
by: Deb Weinstein, t r u t h o u t | 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 condemnation 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 targeting 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 administration and future
administrations will be tempted to bypass routinely the constitutional
restraints of the criminal justice system," the report says.
