President Obama was expected to quickly turn the page on President
Bush’s detention policies, and yet, over a year into his presidency,
we’re still finding that the page is stuck: The New York Times looks at
the schism within the Obama administration over counterterrorism powers.
Administration lawyers, particularly within the State Department and the
Pentagon, are split over the extent of the White House’s power. The
Times recounts several internal White House battles. Early on, the Obama
team said it would revise Bush’s sweeping detention policies by limiting
its detentions of people without trials to members and “substantial
supporters” of al Qaeda. But last summer, some lawyers argued that an
Algerian “supporter” who helped al Qaeda recruits travel to Afghanistan
was not as detainable as actual al-Qaeda fighters. In a secret memo,
Harold Koh, the State Department’s top lawyer, said there was no backing
in the laws of war for the Algerian man’s detention; the Pentagon’s top
lawyer, meanwhile, argued for a flexible definition of whom could be
detained. Rather than answer the question, the administration simply
redefined the man as effectively part of al Qaeda, rather than just a
supporter.
Read it at The New York Times:
http://e.thedailybeast.com/a/tBLsJs9B7SwhTB8GpDnCgEg3DyG/dail2
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