In NYT Interview, Obama Contradicts His Own Policy on Prisoners' Habeas Rights

Posted by Liliana Segura, AlterNet at 2:03 PM on March 8, 2009.

On Friday, President Barack Obama gave a wide-ranging, 35-minute interview to the New York Times aboard Air Force One.

The transcript, available here, includes his answers on questions about the economy, Iraq and Afghanistan, whether we are a "nation of cowards," and whether he is actually "a socialist as some people have suggested."

The big headline of the interview was that Obama is contemplating reaching out to "elements of the Taliban" in an effort to duplicate the U.S. military strategy in Iraq.

"If you talk to Gen. Petraeus," he told Times reporter Jeff Zeleny, "I think he would argue that part of the success in Iraq involved reaching out to people that we would consider to be Islamic fundamentalists, but who were willing to work with us because they had been completely alienated by the tactics of al-Qaida in Iraq. There may be some comparable opportunities in Afghanistan and the Pakistani region."

Although his answers were typically deliberate and carefully worded, Obama shared one critical insight on his administration's approach to counterterrorism that directly contradicted its recent actions.

Responding to a question about the policy of continuing renditions -- a policy that is ostensibly still being determined -- Obama emphasized that "we don't torture" and that he will ensure that we "ultimately provide anybody that we're detaining an opportunity through habeas corpus to answer to charges."

But, according to the Times, "aides later said Mr. Obama did not mean to suggest that everybody held by American forces would be granted habeas corpus or the right to challenge their detention."

"In a court filing last month," wrote Times reporters Helene Cooper and Sheryl Gay Stolberg, "the Obama administration agreed with the Bush administration position that 600 prisoners in a cavernous prison on the American air base at Bagram in Afghanistan have no right to seek their release in court.

"Instead, aides said Mr. Obama's comment referred only to a Supreme Court decision last year finding that prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, have the right to go to federal court to challenge their continued detention."

Why the prisoners at Bagram would be treated by a different standard than those at Guantanamo went unaddressed. But the contradiction underscored the widespread concern that the Afghan air base has become Obama's Guantanamo.

"Mr. Obama signaled that those on the left seeking a wholesale reversal of Mr. Bush's detainee policy might be disappointed."

Tagged as: new york times, supreme court, afghanistan, barack obama, guantánamo, bagram air base, air force one iraq

Liliana Segura is a staff writer and editor of AlterNet's Rights and Liberties and War on Iraq Special Coverage.