Without going so far as to compare Obama to George W. Bush, the ACLU thinks the President’s deeds are out of step with his words. “We welcome President Obama’s stated commitment to the Constitution, the rule of law and the unequivocal rejection of torture,” said ACLU executive director Anthony Romero. “But unlike the president, we believe that continuing with the failed military commissions and creating a new system of indefinite detention without charge is inconsistent with the values that he expressed so eloquently at the National Archives today.”
That’s some pretty thinly veiled criticism. At issue is Obama’s announcement of a system of so-called “preventive detention” for suspects who, according to Obama, “cannot be prosecuted yet who pose a clear danger to the American people.” They will, apparently, be held for years, subject only to judicial and congressional oversight mechanisms that have yet to be defined. If you want to know how such a system compares to indefinite detention programs other democracies have used, Spencer Ackerman brings the knowledge. The left is not happy about this.
