No evidence had emerged as to who had planned, co-ordinated, funded, and carried out last weeks attack in Mumbai. Yet, here's Gerson, wailing away at his keyboard:
The attacks have come like the steady rhythm of a clock -- 171 dead in Mumbai. Tick. Fifty-two dead in the London bombings. Tock. One hundred ninety-one dead in the Madrid train attacks. Tick. Two hundred two in Bali, and 2,973 in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania.
The rest of the column disappears in to the stratosphere, a combination of irrelevancies and non-sequiturs, and even enters the fantasy land reserved for those who still believe George W. Bush has done anything worthwhile.
Most of the methods employed in this effort have been effective, congressionally approved and broadly noncontroversial -- fighting money laundering, intercepting terrorist communications, tightening up the border.
--snip--
Yet some methods designed for exceptional cases, such as waterboarding, were ethically disturbing and eventually counterproductive -- causing self-inflicted ideological wounds in a largely ideological struggle. And there is little doubt that some administration claims of executive power invited a judicial backlash and undermined the power of future presidents. The Supreme Court reversed the administration three times on detainee issues because Bush officials relied exclusively on executive authority for their actions. If the administration had sought congressional backing for military commissions in 2001, and later for rules to hold combatants, the resulting legal framework would probably have been upheld by the courts -- and would probably have been closer to administration goals than the eventual result.
Gerson actually performs a service of sorts, toward the end of his column. By offering the incoming President and his Administration advice, Obama knows now what not to do.
On interrogation, Obama's choice is clear. The Defense Department has already adopted restrictive standards on the treatment of all detainees -- more restrictive than the law requires. But should the Pentagon rules for 1.4 million soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines be applied to CIA treatment of a newly captured terrorist with vital information? Or should the CIA be allowed to employ still-classified "enhanced" techniques short of torture? During his campaign, Obama promised the universal application of the Defense Department approach -- but that is easier for a candidate than a president to pledge.
The hardest issues concern detained terrorists. Guantanamo will and should be closed as a public diplomacy nightmare. Perhaps half of the detainees will be sent home, leaving about 100 exceptionally dangerous men. The Obama administration will need to decide on a format for trials -- much improved but politically discredited military commissions, ordinary civilian courts or some kind of national security courts created by Congress and supervised by the federal judiciary.
But the administration will not be able to try everyone. Some detainees will be too dangerous to release but too difficult to convict in a normal court setting using unclassified evidence. And any president will need the ability to hold and question newly captured terrorists outside the procedures designed for American criminals. Unless Obama returns to a simple exertion of executive authority, he will require congressional authorization to detain people. And this will expose a major tension between the new president's military responsibilities and the views of supporters who believe that detainees should be held only in preparation for trial.
And editors and publishers wonder why their businesses are failing?
