The Obama team is going to have to be blunt with the American people about what happened, how Bush screwed up, and why all of these cases are tainted.

It would sure help if the DOJ could go after the administration officials who caused this fuckup by legalizing torture. But then, that would be "looking backwards", wouldn't it?

I really hope Obama does the right thing. It won't be easy, thanks to the way Bush has walled him in to a series of bad options.

That said, I think someone like Khalid Sheik Mohammed could be prosecuted even without any of the tainted evidence. The case against him has to be airtight, based on what he did pre-2002 and pre-capture.

IMO, the Gitmo detainees were never meant to be examples of legality. They were just political props, pawns that Bush & company could use and point to as scary terrorists. The worst of the worst. And see, we're lockin' em up and throwin' away the key!

The calculation was that Bushco would be long gone before the FUBAR consequences would have to be faced (by Obama).

screwed up is that there never was an actual case that could be brought in a court of law.  There never was any evidence, in fact there was nothing.  

The real point of Guantanamo was to assert the newly-invented right of the President to lock up whoever he wanted, whenever he wanted, for as long as he wanted, in defiance of anything resembling due process of law.  Calling them "terrorists" was done simply to make the charade palatable, even, seemingly, "necessary."  

Whoever did 9/11, it wasn't these guys.  

The Fates are kind.

Nineteen of the 9/11 "plotters" are dead.

Oh yes, the other thing:

The Bush administration will defend itself with the reply "At least we kept them out of action."  Which assumes that the "them" in Guantanamo or rendered are the same "them" who were plotting additional attacks.

50 states, 210 media market, 435 Congressional Districts, 3080 counties, 192,480 precincts

so here is the story. I have expressed to one of my daughters my growing "uneasiness" with what appears to be the O mans admin direction with regard to a number of things- gitmo being one. I promised to "wait and see" and I will keep my promise.HOWEVER- the gitmo situation is such a open reflection of the bush horror, and the idea that the incoming Pbama administration appears to be possibly dragging out what is the clear disgrace of the illegal incarcerations is causing me to face the potential for us all to being once agin being SCREWED.
 I have questioned some of his appointments, I have felt a growing nervousness with some of quotes being offered regarding the sec of state designee regarding Hamas- to name just two.
  Given what has taken place during the past 8 years, I have to ask- what have we bought? GITMO may well be the "canary in the mine" and ya know what? I hope that it is - sooner better than later. The answer is simple. The sign of true and lasting power arises not from military power but from communication. This country screwed up and I know that Obama won by promising a new way- not the same bull that got us where we are now!

The torture business and the detention in Guantanamo of many innocent people is a national disgrace. Bush and Co have managed to tarnish core values of our nation.  And, now, we learn that even cases against the alleged guilty may have to be thrown out because of gross incompetence on the part of the Bush Administration.

You damn well right there ought to be an investigation of such incredible stupidity and blindness.  What, did the Bush people due this on purpose? Were they in cahoots with the 9/11 terrorists to get their dearly beloved "Pearl Harbor" so they could launch their plan for the next American century?

Seriously, I don't know what to believe any more in this upside down world we call the United States. Bankers going bust, GM hanging by a thread, unemployment spreading massively, the stock market tanking, and a candidate elected on a program of change who may be developing cold feet.

One last thought, can you imagine where we senior citizens would be if we had followed Bush's program and invested our newly privatized Social Security funds in the stock market, should that program have made it into law? Total, unmitigated disaster.  I think Republicans are a malignancy metastasizing through our body politic.  Can we survive their baneful influence?

Suppose you scrub your ethical skin until it shines, but inside there is no music, then what? Kabir

911 plotters??  I read the NYT piece - all the evidence against any of these guys that we know is from guess who?   The Bush administration, who tortured the lot of em.

Maybe some of those guys are killers and maybe they're ice cream vendors, WE WILL NEVER KNOW because anyone under torture will say anything.  I haven't even seen a shred of evidence that KSM is even in US custody, much less the "mastermind" of anything.

Every last prisoner needs to be let go ASAP, free and clear.  If they're bad guys that's our bad for not prosecuting them correctly and fairly.

Pax

Night and day you can find me Flogging the Simian

One thing Obama could do is appoint a Republican prosecutor and have him and her be in charge of all Guantanamo prosecutions.  That way it would kind of remove the politics from the Obama administration.  Make it an independent office.

Then when the prosecutor has to decline to file charges or file weak charges against only a handful of detainees then Obama can publicly blame the Bush administration.

And then America might see one reason to prosecute the torturers; torture leads to botched criminal cases.

But I say prosecute the torturers now.  They have made America less safe and harmed its national security (in addition to committing crimes against humanity).