Panetta Hearing: Indefinite Detention-Lite?

CIA Director-designate Leon Panetta gave an odd answer when asked about future long-term detentions by Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.). He didn’t really go so far beyond the standard post-executive order line — there will be a review by the cabinet; the CIA is out of the long-term-detention business; Bayh seemed not to grasp that the CIA doesn’t run Guantanamo — but Panetta did say that there would “very frankly” be a small class of individual detainees who would have to be “held for a long time.” The federal courts would have to have “some kind of notification” so the detainees wouldn’t simply be held indefinitely without charge. But it seemed like Panetta just advocated some form of extended detention without charge.