Obama to keep military tribunals

In a move sure to rile his allies on the left, President Obama is planning to keep the Bush administration-era military tribunals for alleged terrorist detainees in place.

The White House confirmed Friday that the president intends to continue the system for trying terrorism suspects, but he is planning to expand the detainees’ rights.

{mosads}Calling the commissions a “long tradition in the United States,” Obama said in a statement Friday that the procedures are “appropriate appropriate for trying enemies who violate the laws of war, provided that they are properly structured and administered.”

The president acknowledged that, while in the Senate, he voted in favor of the use of the commissions in 2006, but he said he “objected strongly to the Military Commissions Act that was drafted by the Bush administration and passed by Congress because it failed to establish a legitimate legal framework and undermined our capability to ensure swift and certain justice against those detainees that we were holding at the time.”

“Indeed, the system of military commissions at Guantanamo Bay had only succeeded in prosecuting three suspected terrorists in more than seven years,” Obama said.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates will ask for continuances in some of the pending proceedings, Obama said, because the administration is looking for more time to reform the process and add some legal protections for the accused. Gates will notify Congress of the protections Obama wants to add, which include disallowing “statements that have been obtained from detainees using cruel, inhuman and degrading interrogation methods.”

The president also wants to limit the use of hearsay in the proceedings, give the accused “greater latitude” in selecting legal counsel and establish “basic protections” for detainees who refuse to testify. Also, the president said, his reforms will allow “military commission judges to establish the jurisdiction of their own courts.”

“These reforms will begin to restore the commissions as a legitimate forum for prosecution, while bringing them in line with the rule of law,” Obama said. “In addition, we will work with the Congress on additional reforms that will permit commissions to prosecute terrorists effectively and be an avenue, along with federal prosecutions in Article III courts, for administering justice. This is the best way to protect our country, while upholding our deeply held values.”

Bush was vilified by Democrats for holding detainees indefinitely without affording them due process granted to U.S. criminals.

Obama is expected to announce later today that he will use the tribunals at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

His announcement comes one day after Attorney General Eric Holder assured Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill that the administration would not release dangerous detainees on U.S. soil.

Obama has promised to close the prison by Jan. 22 of next year. Lawmakers have been pressing the administration to come up with a plan for the detainees.

Liberal groups are expected to object to this move — especially in light of the fact that Obama campaigned against the military commission system last year.

This story was updated at 1:35 p.m.