The Senate has passed a bill, sponsored by Republican Lindsay Graham, that fits right in the Bush Administration's executive control pocket--removal of habeas corpus rights to judicial process in U.S. courts--for detainees at Guantanamo. Habeas review is the most basic due process right that permits a person being held to challenge the grounds for his or her detention. In the case of detainees from the Administration's so-called "war on terror," courts would review whether the Administration's decision to treat a detainee as an "enemy combatant" is appropriate. That categorization entails a number of consequences, and under the Administration's apparent views towards use of cruel, degrading and inhumane treatment, worrisome concerns about possible rendering to other countries for torture or seclusion in a "black site" somewhere around the globe.
The following is a letter from the President of the American Bar Association condemning the Senate's action in removing this most basic liberty right from people who may be entirely innocent and whose labelling as enemies has been handled by a military that has proven itself incompetent to protect basic rights and incapable of appreciating the importance of speedy trial determinations.
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After complaints from Americans across the country, a "compromise" has been worked out in the Senate. The compromise still removes habeas rights, but at least does allow a detainee who has had a military tribunal hearing a right of appeal of that decision to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The compromise itself falls far short of the legal process that we should provide to anyone that we have detained. It assumes the accuracy of the military's categorization of a person as an enemy combatant, and does not permit challenges to that categorization through the judicial process. The evidence is clear that the government has held hundreds (counting Iraq, thousands) of persons for months and years without verifying their status as enemies. More than 500 prisoners have finally been released from Guantanamo. Among those, many are not charged in their home country--all evidence would suggest that they were innocent of terrorism and merely inadvertently caught up in the dragnet of anti-terrorist fervor. These are the people who will have no redress from the courts if they cannot go to court to challenge their status, as determined on the ultimate sayso of the person holding the office of President of the United States. The power of dictators is based on removal of rights such as these. We should not move down that slippery slope by our actions towards those detained in Afghanistan, Iraq and even within our own borders as in the case of citizen Pareda who was stowed away in a military brig.
This news comes as Congress prepares to extend the so-called "Patriot" Act without making substantial changes to remove the noxious provisions threatening the liberty of every American. Military access to book purchases, library information-seeking and military databases storing concentrated information on ordinary American citizens are a significant threat to Democracy. Congress should bury most of those provisions and restore the liberty that true patriots have fought for throughout our history.
This Congress, and this person holding the office of President, have so far shown an inability to understand the importance of the most basic due process rights. Let's hope that they can get the message now.
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