Washington at Its Worst: Stop the Gitmo Sell-Out

It's getting even uglier in Washington DC.

Yesterday, the
Washington Post reported that President Obama's advisers are
"nearing a recommendation" that the administration overrule Attorney
General Holder's plan for a criminal trial for Khalid Sheik Mohammed
and other Guantanamo Bay detainees and revert to Bush/Cheney military
commissions. Negotiations have reportedly been underway between Rahm
Emanuel and Senator Lindsey Graham, with Graham allegedly promising to
help the administration curry favor with Senate Republicans in his bid
to close Guantanamo Bay if the president abandons his Attorney General
and his pledge to defend the rule of law.

We are now witnessing Washington, D.C. politics at its absolute
worst. The recommended White House flip-flop on terror trials puts
politics above national security. "Change we can believe in" is being
replaced with some of the worst Bush/Cheney policies.

The
advice that Rahm Emanuel and his White House colleagues is apparently
offering the president is dead wrong principally, practically and
politically:

Principally, it undermines a bedrock of our nation
-- the rule of law -- while reversing the president's campaign pledge to
uphold it. And it makes a mockery of the president's commitment to
re-establish an independent Justice Department that is no longer a
political tool of the White House.

Practically, it replaces a system that works -- the criminal justice
system -- with something that doesn't -- military commissions. There have
been 319 convictions of terrorist suspects in criminal courts compared
to a total of three in military commissions.

And politically it makes the breathtaking assumption that this
flip-flop is going to silence Republicans, end their campaign to keep
Guantanamo open, and back them off from their dogged criticism of the
President's national security strategy. Call me crazy, but isn't it
obvious that such a retreat will have precisely the OPPOSITE effect,
emboldening the right-wing to increase their volume and step up the
pressure on the White House and Congressional Democrats?

The Post story includes an extraordinary quote from the acting
chief defense counsel at the Defense Department's Office of Military
Commissions. Marine Colonel Jeffrey Colwell told the Post that it would
be "a sad day for the rule of law" if President Obama decides not to
proceed with a federal trial.

"I thought the decision where to put people on trial -- whether
federal court or military commissions -- was based on what was right,
not what is politically advantageous."

Colonel Colwell is right. Rahm Emanuel is not.

Progressives
throughout the country are taking a moment to call and fax the White
House. They are responding to our appeal to let the White House know
that we strongly oppose any deal to close Guantanamo that abandons our
Constitution and our core values.

Our national security, our
judicial system based on the rule of law and our Constitution should
not be jettisoned in a Washington, D.C. deal to curry favor with Senate
Republicans and protect the President's political standing. I hope the
White House will reconsider this ill-advised decision and listen to
folks like their own Attorney General and Chief Defense Council at the
Pentagon and put terrorist on trial in the system we know works best --
the criminal justice system.

If you agree, the White House needs to hear from you.

White House Switchboard: 202-456-1111