Why an Oregon Islamic charity matters to your civil liberties

Glenn Greenwald gives Obama a pair of black eyes on the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation appeals court ruling.

The first is for unsuccessfully trying to stifle a judicial peek at at least a small segment of BushCo’s warrantless wiretapping. It is shameful, and worse.

As Glenn notes, Obama didn’t ask for more time on this judicial ruling; instead, his Department of Justice jumped in both feet to defend BushCo policy.

In a very important footnote, then, Glenn even wonders if Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri is being sent by Obama out of Gitmo for civilian trial for the same reason BushCo did with Jose Padilla – to avoid a Supreme Court ruling, and leave the Fourth Circuit’s ruling on Padilla in place?

The second black eye follows on the first. After further criticizing the Obama DOJ on Haramain, unsuccessfully trying to stifle, Glenn puts it in larger context. He notes that in the Haramain pleading, here’s the nut graf:

According to Obama, only the President has the power to decide what is done with classified information, and neither courts nor Congress have any power at all to do anything but politely request that the President change his mind.

With this statement, Glenn says we need to take that critical of a look at all related civil liberties issues. As he has already done on al-Marri.

And, so, the myth that Obama would reverse BushCo policies on civil liberties gets two more black eyes.