I read an interesting and useful book on the airplane this week called Civil Liberties vs. National Security in a Post 9/11 World. The book is a few years old, but the discussion of the essential parts of the Constitution as it applies to civil liberties and national security is valuable. The authors also examine key cases and feature several written arguments of varying opinion on these issues, and it is a must-read for anyone interested in the way our country conducts the war on terrorism.
Barack Obama is preparing for his transition in January, and we should all hope for a smooth one. One of my friends who works with members of the transition and advisory team informed me this week that Obama’s team is going through the list of Bush executive orders and is basically looking to reverse every one of them. Treatment and prosecution of enemy detainees is surely a subject that Obama will have to set a strategy for, and we’re already learning that Obama wants to close Guantanamo Bay and try enemy combatants in American courts.
Andy McCarthy recently wrote about the rude awakening Obama will have when he enters office and realizes the situation we face. McCarthy has been a strong opponent of using the limited court system to prosecute terrorist enemy combatants traditionally. Obama will probably realize that his promises will be difficult to implement on this matter. He should heed McCarthy’s advice.
An example of the questions Obama will face is what to do with the Chinese Uighurs, who either need to be released into the U.S. or sent back to a place where they’ll face persecution, as a judge has already decided that the trained terrorists can no longer be legally detained. What Obama chooses to do with the Uighur detainees will probably set the tone for his strategy.
Much of what Obama promised in regards to the war and issues of national security will likely not occur, as the situation will probably not allow him to deliver on these pandering promises. What we are likely to experience, as we warned during the campaign, is a return to a Clinton-era law enforcement approach to terrorism. As McCarthy learned first hand and has written, this would be a disaster for our national security.
UPDATE: Ed Morrissey discusses at Hot Air the potential for Obama’s positions on detention and interrogation to change. In the aftermath of Boumediene, it will be interesting to see if Obama indeed insists on granting all enemy detainees habeas corpus, or if he will indeed vindicate some of President Bush’s policies of detention and prosecution.
