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 | | From: | Dan Clore | | Subject: | Judge--Guantanamo Prisoners *Cannot* Challenge Imprisonment | | Date: | Sat, 22 Jan 2005 11:53:37 -0800 |
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 | News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
Detainees Can't Challenge Confinement
Thursday January 20, 2005 1:16 AM
AP Photo NYET250
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal judge threw out a lawsuit
Wednesday by foreign-born terror suspects challenging their
detention in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, ruling that last year's
landmark Supreme Court ruling did not provide them the legal
basis to win their freedom.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled that Congress had
authorized the president to order the detention of "enemy
combatants" for the duration of the war on terror.
The lawsuit by seven of the roughly 550 detainees being held
at the U.S. Navy base failed to show valid legal grounds to
overturn that power, Leon said. As a result, the proper
place to contest their detainment is before military review
boards, not federal courts.
"The petitioners are asking this court to do something no
federal court has done before: evaluate the legality of the
(president's) capture and detention of nonresident aliens,
outside the United States, during a time of armed conflict,"
Leon wrote.
"In the final analysis, the court's role in reviewing the
military's decision to capture and detain a nonresident
alien is, and must be, highly circumscribed," he wrote.
Lawyers representing the detainees said they would appeal.
If allowed to stand, the decision would "render meaningless"
the Supreme Court ruling by allowing detainees access to
federal court, but then automatically dismissing their suits
as groundless, they said.
"I didn't think it was going to be quite as sweeping as this
nor quite as dismissive of the Supreme Court's decisions,"
said Barbara Olshansky, attorney with the New York-based
Center for Constitutional Rights. "It means that people can
be seized everywhere."
Neal Sonnet, who chairs the American Bar Association's task
force on enemy combatants, called Leon's order
disappointing. "It flies in the face of what we think the
Supreme Court ruled in June -- that Guantanamo detainees had
substantive rights beyond the jurisdictional question," he said.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court rejected the Bush
administration's argument that U.S. courts had no business
second-guessing detentions of foreigners held on foreign
soil. It said the Guantanamo detainees could challenge their
detention, but it left lower courts to determine the actual
merits of their claims.
The decision prompted a flurry of lawsuits on behalf of
detainees. Another judge in the same District Court, Joyce
Hens Green, is expected to rule soon on similar claims filed
by 55 other detainees.
Leon concluded the detainees presented "no viable theory" to
support their claim that they are being held in violation of
federal laws. Foreign citizens captured and detained outside
the United States have no rights under the Constitution or
international law, he said.
[An absolute, utter falsehood. The Constitution does not
include any such restrictions of the rights it recognizes.
Furthermore, the Alien Torts Claim Act gives US courts
jurisdiction over serious crimes that occur anywhere in the
world.--DC]
Under the military appeal process, detainees may challenge
their status as "enemy combatants" in review tribunals as
well as at annual administrative hearings that determine
whether they still pose a threat or have valuable intelligence.
In addition, detainees may be subject to military trials.
However, defendants in such cases have fewer legal rights
than prisoners of war. A federal judge ruled the trials
denied basic legal rights and ordered the military to come
up with a new procedure.
The Supreme Court declined on Tuesday to hear an expedited
appeal of that issue while an appeals court reviews the
case. Arguments are set for March 8.
Sonnet, who monitored the tribunals in Cuba last August,
said the military procedures were inadequate.
"The military review tribunals are a sham," he said. "They
don't give any detainee an effective right to contest
conditions of his detention."
--
Dan Clore
Now available: _The Unspeakable and Others_
http://www.wildsidepress.com/index2.htm
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1587154838/thedanclorenecro
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"It's a political statement -- or, rather, an
*anti*-political statement. The symbol for *anarchy*!"
-- Batman, explaining the circle-A graffiti, in
_Detective Comics_ #608
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