One Month After Inauguration Day

On Feb. 20, one month after Barack Obama is sworn in as our next president, he must file a brief to let the Supreme Court, and the American people, know how he stands on the Bush administration's policy that says the commander-in-chief "may order the military to seize legal residents of the United States and hold them indefinitely without charging them with a crime." We hope that Mr. Obama will decide to stand with us as if we illegally detain one legal resident, we may illegally detain any legal resident.

One month after he is inaugurated, the 44th president will have the chance to address, and begin to ameliorate, the moral vertigo from which this country now suffers.

Many of us who have called for the new administration to revisit terminology such as "unlawful enemy combatant," and the policy of holding prisoners of war without charges, as well as without access to evidence against them, hope that Mr. Obama stands firm on his stated intention to close Guantanamo Bay, and the heinous practice of extraordinary rendition. It is hoped, too, that, through rigorous investigation, other clandestine detention centers, which currently hold thousands in Iraq, and Afghanistan, will be brought to light.

Those, like our current vice president, who argue that information obtained from detainees by using "enhanced alternative interrogation" techniques have kept this country safe from another terror attack, fail to point out that testimony obtained from torture is inadmissible in court, thus not only do we act contrary to centuries of international legal precedent by waterboarding, but we also act at cross-purposes when using coercive measures to acquire confessions that aren't worth the paper they're written on.

While there may not be a whole lot Mr. Obama can do about foreign policy in that he must, after all, play the hand he's been dealt, we're confident that he will make his mark when it comes to domestic policy, as well as reigning in the runaway expansion of the executive branch. The White House has done to the Constitution, and the Geneva Conventions, what Israel is now doing to the Gaza strip, and the paranoia of this administration rivals even that of the Nixon administration. It is often the case that paranoia derives from an exaggerated sense of self-importance. This is surely the case with the administration of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

Clearly, President-Elect Obama has a lot on his plate now, but the position he takes on the power of the presidency, as well as the rights of those we detain, will be the bell heard round the world.

That bell must toll for all of us -- for the ironworkers, those disenfranchised in federal prisons, to the innocent on death row; for the unlikely terrorist who has been divested of due process to the homeless veteran who sleeps in the doorway of despair. Were it to be otherwise, the forces of darkness that took hold will have cemented their grip, and no president will ever be able to undo their damage again.

Comments

[Jayne Lyn Stahl - Huffpost Blogger]

It looks to me like President-elect Obama is going to get this right by the announcement today of his pick of Leon Panetta is director of the CIA.

It's up to the Senate to confirm Panetta, of course, but given Panetta's strong anti-torture stand, whether he makes it through confirmation process or not, this is as clear a signal of the direction in which an Obama administration is going, and as powerful a statement against so-called "alternative" interrogation techniques of his predecessor. Way to go, Obama!

[LeftRight]

Great idea, except rather than wait until February 20th I would rather see this occur on January 21st, or even the afternoon of January 20th!

[sarge]

Amen, Jayne. And Happy New Year!

Let's hope Obama doesn't ruin the honeymoon after just one month.

[boophus]

To me this is the MOST IMPORTANT act that President Elect Barack HUSSEIN Obama can accomplish. Repair & Preserve our constitution or we have no democracy.

[dbartenstein]

What are you trying to imply with the capital letters? Isn't Boophus a muslim name?

[sarge]

I'll take a stab, and give the benefit of the doubt. It is people with names like "Hussein" which are most at risk of unlawful imprisonment.

If Obama doesn't get this right, I am going to be really disappointed.

We either have the fundamental right to a writ of habeas corpus, to be charged or released, and, if charged, the right to a fair & swift trial by jury, or we do not live in a free country.