Remember Minority Report?

If not you’re missing out on one of the best sci-fi movies ever. While you can read everything on the relevant Wikipedia article, the main synopsis is that the local government has a division of the police that is called The Precrime Unit. The Precrime Unit are able to predict crimes before they happen through access to a small group of people capable of precognition. As a result, the police imprison these would-be criminals so that they will not be able to carry out the crime they would have committed.

 

While this all takes place in a science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick (and a later movie adaptation), a new version of it is taking place in real life. Enter Obama’s new plan for Guantanamo detainees. In Obama’s speech on National Security on May 21, 2009 Obama outlines that he will be doing his best to close down Guantanamo and get all of the detainees to trial. However, what happens to those who cannot be brought to trial? According to the speech:

Finally, there remains the question of detainees at Guantanamo who cannot be prosecuted yet who pose a clear danger to the American people.

I want to be honest: this is the toughest issue we will face. We are going to exhaust every avenue that we have to prosecute those at Guantanamo who pose a danger to our country. But even when this process is complete, there may be a number of people who cannot be prosecuted for past crimes, but who nonetheless pose a threat to the security of the United States. [...]

As I said, I am not going to release individuals who endanger the American people. Al Qaeda terrorists and their affiliates are at war with the United States, and those that we capture – like other prisoners of war – must be prevented from attacking us again. However, we must recognize that these detention policies cannot be unbounded. That is why my Administration has begun to reshape these standards to ensure they are in line with the rule of law. We must have clear, defensible and lawful standards for those who fall in this category. We must have fair procedures so that we don’t make mistakes. We must have a thorough process of periodic review, so that any prolonged detention is carefully evaluated and justified.

 

So what does this new detention policy allow? According to an article by Glenn Greenwald, a right-wing critic who I usually disagree with and who’s link to the article is currently not functioning for me (but used to be here), states that the policy will:

not [just] merely allow the U.S. Government to imprison people alleged to have committed Terrorist acts yet who are unable to be convicted in a civilian court proceeding [but] indefinite imprisonment not based on proven crimes or past violations of law, but of those deemed generally “dangerous” by the Government for various reasons (such as, as Obama put it yesterday, they “expressed their allegiance to Osama bin Laden” or “otherwise made it clear that they want to kill Americans”). That’s what “preventive” means: imprisoning people because the Government claims they are likely to engage in violent acts in the future because they are alleged to be “combatants.”

 

Alleged combatant

 

So a policy that allows for pre-emptive detention based on what people seem like they would do, but haven’t done yet? Sounds a lot like Precrime. Obama’s new detention proposal — while said to be used sparingly and with much review — is more radical than any proposal put forth by Bush or any other man in any other democratic nation. The debate that raged in Britain about how to deal with IRA terrorism resulted in detention that maxed out at 42 days, not indefinitely.

Also, the US terrorist detention system doesn’t even have to deal with these!

 

Adam Sewer at The American Prospect sums it up the best, saying:

Herein lies the most dangerous path for us as a country–whether or not you believe these men are guilty, the fact is that detention without due process is a fundamental violation of the same laws that Obama called “the source of our strength through the ages.”

 

Another problem with “indefinite detention” and differing the “Precrime” policy from the “normal” concept of holding Prisoners of War is the duration of the War on Terror, which as Obama stated in his own words, could last:

Right now, in distant training camps and in crowded cities, there are people plotting to take American lives. That will be the case a year from now, five years from now, and – in all probability – ten years from now.

 

And just like in Minority Report, it’s impossible to have this be perfect, and it’s impossible to have a system without some corruption, some false positives, and some noticeable guilty people abusing the system and getting free. Obama is a fine president, but this policy needs to be reworked.