# Obama continuing Bush's legal tactics with detainees? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 11, 2009, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-continuing-bushs-legal-tactics-with-detainees/485327 "2009-02-11T04:26:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2009, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-continuing-bushs-legal-tactics-with-detainees/485327/1 "2009-02-11T04:26:46Z")
According to the [Washington Monthly](http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_02/016821.php) Obama is continuing practices that he severely criticized Bush for during his campaign. Is there truth to their charges? I can imagine that Obama has good reason but on the surface it looks bad. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2009, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-continuing-bushs-legal-tactics-with-detainees/485327/2 "2009-02-11T04:34:02Z")
Correct me if I’m wrong here, but doesn’t this have to do with classified information? I don’t think this has to do with the detainees, per se…something, afaik, that Obama has already started moving on to make major changes on. By my count it’s ONLY FEBRUARY… -XT ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2009, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-continuing-bushs-legal-tactics-with-detainees/485327/3 "2009-02-11T04:42:56Z")
That’s a good point: is it reasonable to expect Obama to change things this quickly? Could Obama have told the lawyers involved to wait until the case could be reexamined? The author of the op-ed seems to think so but I don’t trust a single source. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2009, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-continuing-bushs-legal-tactics-with-detainees/485327/4 "2009-02-11T08:06:23Z")
Sometimes things are not so easy. Some times even the president cannot stop things on his own. > [@](#): > > [http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/breaking-news/story/878455.html](http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/breaking-news/story/878455.html) > > Army judge won’t stop war court > > The chief judge of the Guantánamo war court Thursday spurned a presidential request to freeze the military commissions, and said he would go forward with next month’s hearing for an alleged USS Cole bomber in a capital terror case. > > Abd el Rahim al Nashiri, a Saudi Arabian, faces a Feb. 9 arraignment on terror charges he helped orchestrate the October 2000 al Qaeda suicide bombing that killed 17 U.S. sailors off the coast of Yemen. > > Nashiri is now held at the remote U.S. Navy base in southeast Cuba after years of CIA detention in which the agency has confirmed it waterboarded him in secret custody. On the one hand I can understand President Obama saying “stop everything, we need to take a look at this”. On the other hand I can understand a judge saying “the POTUS has had more than enough time already, this man has been held for too long, I cannot make allowances just because the person who happens to be POTUS has changed, it is the same Executive”. So, it is just one more mess created by the clown who left. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2009, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-continuing-bushs-legal-tactics-with-detainees/485327/5 "2009-02-11T09:33:44Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > Correct me if I’m wrong here, but doesn’t this have to do with classified information? Didn’t you read the link ? It has to do with us grabbing a guy for reading a joke website, then having his genitals carved up and hot liquids poured into the wounds. Among other things. But hey, if it’s for national security what does it matter ? ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2009, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-continuing-bushs-legal-tactics-with-detainees/485327/6 "2009-02-11T15:49:17Z")
I must have missed that part. I guess it’s ok though if it’s for nation security…as long as the one being grabbed and genitalized isn’t me of course… -XT ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2009, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-continuing-bushs-legal-tactics-with-detainees/485327/7 "2009-02-11T17:43:10Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Didn’t you read the link ? It has to do with us grabbing a guy for reading a joke website, then having his genitals carved up and hot liquids poured into the wounds. Among other things. > > But hey, if it’s for national security what does it matter ? Well, and flying with [a fake Brittish passport](http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article4582573.ece). Not that that should be messing with his junk, but maybe you should get off your high horse a bit? You seem to have a bad habit of skewing things in favor of your own personal idealogy.