July, 08 2009, 03:47pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
"The Obama Justice System"
WASHINGTON
The Wall Street Journal reports today: "The Obama administration said Tuesday it could continue to imprison non-U.S. citizens indefinitely even if they have been acquitted of terrorism charges by a U.S. military commission.
"Jeh Johnson, the Defense Department's chief lawyer, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that releasing a detainee who has been tried and found not guilty was a policy decision that officials would make based on their estimate of whether the prisoner posed a future threat."
Greenwald just wrote the piece "The Obama Justice System," which states: "Johnson actually said that even for those detainees to whom the Obama administration deigns to give a real trial in a real court, the President has the power to continue to imprison them indefinitely even if they are acquitted at their trial. ...
"In June, Robert Gibbs was repeatedly asked by ABC News' Jake Tapper whether accused Terrorists who were given a trial and were acquitted would be released as a result of the acquittal, but Gibbs -- amazingly -- refused to make that commitment. But this is the first time an Obama official has affirmatively stated that they have the 'post-acquittal detention' power (and, to my knowledge, the Bush administration never claimed the power to detain someone even if they were acquitted).
"All of this underscores what has clearly emerged as the core 'principle' of Obama justice when it comes to accused Terrorists -- namely, 'due process' is pure window dressing with only one goal: to ensure that anyone the President wants to keep imprisoned will remain in prison."
Greenwald, who regularly writes for Salon.com, was previously a constitutional law and civil rights litigator in New York. He is the author of the New York Times bestselling book How Would a Patriot Act? -- a critique of the Bush administration's use of executive power, released in May 2006. His second book, "A Tragic Legacy, examines the Bush legacy
A nationwide consortium, the Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) represents an unprecedented effort to bring other voices to the mass-media table often dominated by a few major think tanks. IPA works to broaden public discourse in mainstream media, while building communication with alternative media outlets and grassroots activists.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—a co-sponsor of Sanders' Medicare for All Act—similarly toldHuffPost in a Tuesday interview, "The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system."
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