Quote of the Day: John Yoo’s I-Told-You-So
John Yoo, the legal architect of the Bush administration’s torture policies, gloats about Obama’s about face on military trials at Gitmo:
The Obama administration has finally admitted, I think, that the Bush administration’s decision to detain al Qaeda operatives and terrorists at Gitmo was sensible. It wasn’t driven by some bizarre desire to mistreat terrorists, but instead was the best way to address security concerns without keeping them in Afghanistan or inside the United States.
It also turns out that the military commission trials too were a sensible decision. Civilian trials threaten the revelation of valuable intelligence in a covert war where hostilities are still ongoing. Military commissions allow a fair trial to be held but one that does not blow our wartime advantages. Meanwhile, the Obama administration’s track record has been poor — it was lucky to get the limited convictions that it has. Obama folks owe an apology to the Bush administration for their unjust criticism of military trials.