Ever since Pentagon General Counsel Jeh Johnson mused that the Obama administration had the power to detain people acquitted at trial of terrorism charges --
“„“As a legal matter, it is a non-outrageous statement,” says Ben Wittes, a self-identified centrist and legal expert with the Brookings Institution who has proposed a legal framework for preventive detention of suspected terrorists. “It is a very difficult political position to sustain however.” Ken Gude, a human rights and national security expert at the Center for American Progress, agrees. “Technically the government can continue to detain an individual after they’ve been acquitted in a military court, as a matter of law,” says Gude. “As a matter of policy, it’s a terrible decision.”