The American Pundit

Unbelievable. The New York Times reports today that the Obama Administration is seeking to revive military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, citing concerns that terrorism suspects may not be tried effectively in federal courts. These would be the same military courts that Obama himself criticized, by the way.

The Obama administration is moving toward reviving the military commission system for prosecuting Guantánamo detainees, which was a target of critics during the Bush administration, including Mr. Obama himself.

Officials said the first public moves could come as soon as next week, perhaps in filings to military judges at the United States naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, outlining an administration plan to amend the Bush administration’s system to provide more legal protections for terrorism suspects.

Continuing the military commissions in any form would probably prompt sharp criticism from human rights groups as well as some of Mr. Obama’s political allies because the troubled system became an emblem of the effort to use Guantánamo to avoid the American legal system.

Officials who work on the Guantánamo issue say administration lawyers have become concerned that they would face significant obstacles to trying some terrorism suspects in federal courts. Judges might make it difficult to prosecute detainees who were subjected to brutal treatment or for prosecutors to use hearsay evidence gathered by intelligence agencies.

You’ll recall that one of the first things Obama did when taking office was to suspend Guantanamo cases. Well, guess what? Apparently administration officials are having second thoughts:

“The more they look at it,” said one official, “the more commissions don’t look as bad as they did on Jan. 20.”

That might have something to do with the fact that the commissions didn’t look all that bad on January 20th, either. But the president has been on a march to appease the ACLU, international community, and assorted leftists more concerned with protecting terrorists than the country itself. Here’s what Obama’s said in his attacks on the concept of military commissions before:

Still, during the presidential campaign Mr. Obama criticized the commissions, saying that “by any measure our system of trying detainees has been an enormous failure,” and declaring that as president he would “reject the Military Commissions Act.”

And the assorted leftists are pissed:

Anthony D. Romero, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said that Mr. Obama had pledged to return the country to the rule of law and that “continuing with the military commission system would be a retreat from that promise.”

Gabor Rona, the international legal director of Human Rights First, said military commissions would only be necessary if the administration wanted to assure convictions that might not otherwise be certain.

“The administration is making a huge mistake,” Mr. Rona said, “if they believe getting convictions through suspect methods is more valuable than letting justice take its course.”

By the way, hearsay will reportedly still be acceptable evidence under the administration’s new policies. So much for Obama’s campaign rhetoric, huh?

Update: Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey has weighed in, as has Jules Crittenden.