Obama Reinstates Military Panels

After weeks of rumors, it appears President Obama will be reviving President Bush’s controversial military commissions for trying terror suspects, though with big changes: “The rules would block the use of evidence obtained from coercive interrogations, tighten the admissibility of hearsay testimony and allow detainees greater freedom to choose their attorneys,” reports The Washington Post. One of President Obama’s earliest initiatives was to suspend the military commissions for 120 days. As early as next week, he will suspend them for 90 more days and then they will return on American soil, probably at military bases. Human rights and civil liberties advocates, who thought the tribunals were gone for good, are determined to fight the reinstatement.