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“Wouldn’t it have saved a lot of time if Obama had just asked W to be his War-on-Terror czar?”

February 23, 2009 in Law-Constitutional law/executive power, National Security

Following the lead of the Bush administration, the Obama administration argues in court that detainees held at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan do not have constitutional rights, and that the Supreme Court decision extending habeas corpus relief (and by implication, at least, constitutional rights) to prisoners held at Guantanamo Naval Base does not apply. “Human rights” activists are miffed. The “hope” they had has not turned out as expected. Time to change some hope.

And the fun continues. A Pentagon study commissioned by the Obama administration concludes that conditions at Guantanamo meet Geneva Convention standards.

Then comes the good news in a report from The New York Times that Obama’s anti-terror legal tactics will largely and in various ways carry forward the approaches undertaken by the administration of George W. Bush. Mark Steyn quotes a line from Orrin Judd, “Wouldn’t it have saved a lot of time if Obama had just asked W to be his War-on-Terror czar?”

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