Washington, May 13: US President Barack Obama is due
to announce "this week" that he is reviving controversial
military trials for suspected terrorists held at Guantanamo
Bay, US officials said.
But Obama, who sharply criticised the use of military
commissions to try extremists under former president George W
Bush, may ask lawmakers to expand legal protections for
detainees, said the officials, who requested anonymity.
The President could push the US Congress, which created
the military commissions in 2006, to curb the use of hearsay
evidence, ban coerced testimony and allow suspects to choose
their defence counsel, one source said.
The move would affect, among others, five detainees
charged with having played key roles in the September 11, 2001
terrorist strikes, including the plot's self-proclaimed
mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Obama's decision would come as Republicans have fiercely
assailed his order to close the detention facility at the US
naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba by January 22, 2010, and
Democrats have rejected a White House funding request to
shutter the prison.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, a
Democrat, said trials by military commissions would only be
acceptable under revised rules expanding the legal protections
for defendants and that Obama may act quickly.
The President is also seeking to block the release of hundreds of photos showing prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan being abused, reversing his position after military commanders warned that the images could stoke anti-American sentiment and endanger U.S. troops.
The pictures show mistreatment of detainees at locations beyond the infamous U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Word of Obama's decision on Wednesday came after top military commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan expressed fears that publicizing the pictures could put their troops in danger.
When the Abu Ghraib photos emerged in 2004 of grinning U.S. soldiers posing with detainees, some naked, some being held on leashes, they caused a huge anti-American backlash around the globe, particularly in the Muslim world.
Obama decided he did not feel comfortable with the photos release, and was concerned it would inflame tensions in Iraq and Afghanistan, put U.S. soldiers at higher risk and make the U.S. mission in those two wars more difficult, according to White House officials.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters that the president was concerned that the photos' release would pose a national security threat, an argument the administration has not made yet in the courts.
Bureau Report