Report: Obama Camp Proposing to Ship Gitmo Detainees to U.S. Courts

[WSJ_law_blog]

Today, George and Laura Bush are escorting Barack and Michelle Obama on a customary tour of the Obama’s future residence. Meanwhile, the country continues to wonder whether the policies promoted by the pre-election Obama will be the same ones pursued by President-Elect Obama.



President Bush, center, meets with Sen. John McCain, far left, Sen. Barack Obama, far left, and congressional leaders to discuss the financial crisis, September 25, 2008. (AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

During the campaign, Obama described Guantanamo as a “sad chapter in American history” and has said generally that the U.S. legal system is equipped to handle the detainees. Today, the AP is reporting that Obama’s advisers “are quietly crafting a proposal to ship dozens, if not hundreds, of imprisoned terrorism suspects to the United States to face criminal trials, a plan that would make good on his promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison but could require creation of a controversial new system of justice.”

That “new system of justice,” according to the AP, would entail some detainees being released and many others would be prosecuted in U.S. criminal courts. A third group of detainees - the ones whose cases are most entangled in highly classified information - might have to go before a new court designed especially to handle sensitive national security cases, according to advisers and Democrats involved in the talks.

Harvard law prof Laurence Tribe, an Obama legal adviser, told the AP that discussions about plans for Guantanamo had been “theoretical” before the election but would quickly become very focused because closing the prison is a top priority. Bringing the detainees to the United States will be controversial, he said, but could be accomplished. “I think the answer is going to be, they can be as securely guarded on U.S. soil as anywhere else,” Tribe said. “We can’t put people in a dungeon forever without processing whether they deserve to be there.”