Again With the Military Tribunals

Funny how declarations made in the heat of campaign season can be later forgotten by our nation’s elected officials. President Obama continued to do the reversal cha-cha late into the week with his decision to take up the very military tribunals he had sharply criticized before taking office.

Chicago Tribune:

The Obama administration will announce Friday that it will continue to use controversial military commissions to prosecute some alleged terrorists, current and former officials said, reversing a campaign pledge to rely instead on federal courts and the traditional military justice system.

Word on Thursday of the imminent decision angered human-rights groups, which argued that any trials under the system begun by former President George W. Bush would be widely viewed as tainted and said the Obama administration was duplicating the mistakes of the previous administration.

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AP photo / Brennan Linsley

A room inside a trailer sits ready for the military commission trial of a detainee at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba, in this 2006 file photo.