One of President Elect Obama’s key challenges in 2009 is going to be how to deal with captured terrorists. During the campaign, Obama pledged to close Gitmo. But the recent guilty-plea of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks means Obama will face a dilemma. By Inauguration Day, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and five other defendants may have been sentenced. Any sentence will have to be signed off by the President. This means that Obama will either have to agree or disagree with the verdicts which could include death sentences.
If Obama seeks to change the system, for example by having them retried in an ordinary U.S court, then what happens to the confessions of the defendants (that have been extracted using interrogation techniques most people consider to be torture)? Are they admissible or not?
Importing the standards used in Guantanamo into ordinary courts will blow a big hole in the nature of due process, even on an exceptional basis.
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