Restoring Which Good Name?
Simple Justice:
The New York Times printed a major editorial presenting a guideline for Barack Obama to “restore our good name” in the world community, starting with the closing of the Gitmo prison. Clearly, the good name at issue is that of America, and the restoration is in the eyes everyone, Americans as well as the rest of the world.
Americans have watched in horror as President Bush has trampled on the Bill of Rights and the balance of power. The list of abuses that President-elect Barack Obama must address is long: once again require the government to get warrants to eavesdrop on Americans; undo scores of executive orders and bill-signing statements that have undermined the powers of Congress; strip out the unnecessary invasions of privacy embedded in the Patriot Act; block new F.B.I. investigative guidelines straight out of J. Edgar Hoover’s playbook.
Even with all those demands, there is one thing Mr. Obama must do quickly to begin to repair this nation’s image and restore its self-respect: announce a plan for closing Mr. Bush’s outlaw prison at Guantánamo Bay.
The focus creates an odd juxtaposition with a post by Radley Balko the other day following Judge Richard Leon’s release of the Boumediene Five upon finding insufficient evidence to hold them for prosecution. Judge Leon found the evidence “sufficient to hold them for intelligence purposes,” but nothing more. No one apparently noticed that they had been held for 7 years before Judge Leon ordered their release.
Radley focused on a National Review piece by Andrew McCarthy, SDNY prosecutor turned conservative pundit. Like the Times, Andrew was disgusted with the handling of these Algerians, particularly the Justice Department’s abandonment of position that these “enemy combatants” were planning to blow up the American Embassy in Sarajevo, as the President how loudly announced so long ago.
It seems pretty clear that…