Obama Mulls Indefinite Prison Stays

The Associated Press:
The White House is considering whether to issue an executive order to indefinitely imprison a small number of Guantanamo Bay detainees, concerned that Congress might otherwise stymie its plans to quickly close the naval prison in Cuba. Under the proposal, detainees considered too dangerous to prosecute or release would be kept in confinement in the U.S. or possibly overseas, two administration officials said Friday. Civil rights advocates and constitutional scholars accused Obama of parroting the detention policies of former Republican President George W. Bush. "Prolonged imprisonment without trial is exactly the Guantanamo system that the president promised to shut down," Shayana Kadidal, a senior attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights, said in a statement Friday. He added: "If the last eight years have taught us anything, it's that executive overreach, left to continue unchecked for many years, has a tendency to harden into precedent."

Posted by Editor at June 27, 2009 05:22 AM