Obama to Close Gitmo Once New Kangaroo Courts are Established

President-elect Barack Obama is a serious person, which is why he wants to "move forward, not look back" to investigate the Bush Administration's crimes. Now is a time to heal the country, not enforce the rule of law. He also told George Stephanopoulos that Gitmo wouldn't be closing until he can figure out what to do with all the prisoners whose evidence is "tainted," which includes confessions that were given under torture. Tainted evidence isn't admissible in a US (read: or any legitimate) court of law, so what do we do? Here's Obama's explanation (hat tip talk left):

"It is more difficult than I think a lot of people realize," the President-elect explained. "Part of the challenge that you have is that you have a bunch of folks that have been detained, many of whom who may be very dangerous who have not been put on trial or have not gone through some adjudication. And some of the evidence against them may be tainted even though it's true.

And so how to balance creating a process that adheres to rule of law, habeas corpus, basic principles of Anglo American legal system, by doing it in a way that doesn't result in releasing people who are intent on blowing us up."

So now, to convince the world at large that we are a country committed to the rule of law, we're going to set up a new series of courts with relaxed legal requirements.

Leaks are coming out that Obama may state as early as his first day in office that he plans to close Gitmo. When that disgraceful torture center closes it will be a major step forward for this country. Then we can just go back to supporting dictators who do our work for us, and not be so goddamn out in the open about it.