Obama camp plans U.S. trials, closing Guantanamo prison
Published 10:27 pm Monday, November 10, 2008
WASHINGTON — President-elect Obama’s advisers are crafting plans to close the Guantanamo Bay prison and prosecute terrorism suspects in the U.S., a plan the Bush administration said Monday was easier said than done.
Under the plan being crafted inside Obama’s camp, some detainees would be released and others would be charged in U.S. courts, where they would receive constitutional rights and open trials. But, underscoring the difficult decisions Obama must make to fulfill his pledge of shutting down Guantanamo, the plan could require the creation of a new legal system to handle the classified information inherent in some of the most sensitive cases.
Many of the about 250 Guantanamo detainees are cleared for release, but the Bush administration has not able been to find a country willing to take them.
The Bush administration established military tribunals to prosecute detainees at the Navy base in Cuba and strongly opposes bringing prisoners to the United States.
At the White House, spokeswoman Dana Perino said Monday that President Bush has faced many challenges in trying to close the prison.
“We’ve tried very hard to explain to people how complicated it is. When you pick up people off the battlefield that have a terrorist background, it’s not just so easy to let them go,” Perino said. “These issues are complicated, and we have put forward a process that we think would work in order to put them on trial through military tribunals.”
@3. Headline News Briefs 14 no:Don’t sell inaugural tickets, senator asks sites
The senator overseeing President-elect Obama’s swearing-in ceremony said Monday she’s writing to Internet sites such as eBay asking them not to sell scalped inauguration tickets.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., also said she’s crafting a bill that would make it a federal crime to sell tickets to the historic event Jan. 20.
Feinstein, who chairs the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, said she foresees overwhelming demand for the 240,000 available tickets and has heard reports they may be sold for as much as $40,000 online.
The tickets are supposed to be free to the public and distributed through congressional offices. Lawmakers’ offices won’t get the tickets until shortly before the inauguration, to try to prevent scalping. In-person pickup will be required.
@3. Headline News Briefs 14 no:Palin blames Bush’s policies for GOP defeat
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, amid speculation she’ll run for president in four years, blamed Bush administration policies for the defeat last week of the GOP ticket and prayed she wouldn’t miss “an open door” for her next political opportunity.
Palin, who was Sen. John McCain’s running mate, said in a story published Sunday by the Anchorage Daily News: “I think the Republican ticket represented too much of the status quo, too much of what had gone on in these last eight years, that Americans were kind of shaking their heads like going, wait a minute, how did we run up a $10 trillion debt in a Republican administration? How have there been blunders with war strategy under a Republican administration? If we’re talking change, we want to get far away from what it was that the present administration represented and that is to a great degree what the Republican Party at the time had been representing.”
Palin has been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2012. She also could seek re-election in 2010 or challenge Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Still uncertain is the fate of Sen. Ted Stevens, who is leading in his bid for another term but could be ousted by the Senate for his conviction on seven felony counts of failing to report more than $250,000 in gifts, mostly renovations on his home. If Stevens loses his seat, Palin could run for it in a special election.
Associated Press
