The American Pundit

The Obama Administration was dealt its first blow on Guantanamo Bay today, as a military judge at the detention center rejected President Obama’s request to suspend tribunals for 120 days. The judge says that the trial of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the mastermind of the USS Cole bombing, will go forward as planned.

That is, unless the administration wants to drop all charges against the man accused of kill 17 American sailors.

A military judge in Guantanamo Bay has denied the Obama administration’s request to delay proceedings for 120 days in the case of a detainee accused of planning the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole warship, an al-Qaeda strike that killed 17 service members and injured 50 others.

The decision throws into some disarray the administration’s plan to buy time as it reviews individual detainee cases as part of its plan to close the U.S. military prison at the Guantanamo naval base in Cuba. The Pentagon may now be forced to withdraw the charges against Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi citizen of Yemeni descent. …

But Judge James Pohl, an Army colonel, said he found the government’s reasoning “unpersuasive.”

“The Commission is unaware of how conducting an arraignment would preclude any option by the administration,” said Pohl in a written opinion, portions of which were read to The Post. “Congress passed the military commissions act, which remains in effect. The Commission is bound by the law as it currently exists, not as it may change in the future.”

Indeed. As Judge Pohl says, Congress — under Democratic-control — has already addressed the military tribunals in a bi-partisan manner. What they agreed to is the law by which the tribunals are governed — not a rumor of a new law that might appear at some point.

What can the Obama Administration do now? Live with the judge’s decision or commit political suicide by dropping all charges against the man believed to have masterminded an attack that killed 17 Americans. But even if the charges are dropped, it’s not like al-Nashiri would be quickly released. So he’d be held without charge. Quite a predicament, huh?

Via Hot Air.