detainees

Surprising Supreme Court Ruling Favors Guantanamo Bay Prisoners

Posted Thu, 06/12/2008 - 14:24 by standingup
originally posted 2008-06-12 06:58:30 -- bumped. Check out the McClatchy video of the detainees in the link Standingup provides below... chilling. If you think Guantanamo can be justified on the basis that it makes America safer, this video is definitely worth watching - cho

This might be one of the most encouraging news items in years. The U.S. Supreme Court handed down a ruling that Guantanamo Bay prisoners have a constitutional right to habeas corpus. McClatchy Washington Bureau reports:

A sharply divided Supreme Court on Thursday ruled Guantanamo Bay detainees have the right to challenge their extended imprisonment in federal court, and struck down as inadequate an alternative review system set up by Congress. Repudiating a key tenet of the Bush administration’s war-on-terror policy, the court’s 5-4 majority concluded the foreigners held in Guantanamo Bay retain the same habeas corpus rights as U.S. residents.

Open Thread: The Truth Will Set You Free...So We'll Trash It

Posted Mon, 06/09/2008 - 09:32 by Open Thread
From TruthOut, some disturbing news:

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Guantanamo Interrogators Told to Trash Notes

Michael Melia, of The Associated Press: "The Pentagon urged interrogators at Guantanamo Bay to destroy handwritten notes in case they were called to testify about potentially harsh treatment of detainees, a military defense lawyer said Sunday. The lawyer for Toronto-born Omar Khadr, Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler, said the instructions were included in an operations manual shown to him by prosecutors and suggest the US deliberately thwarted evidence that could help terror suspects defend themselves at trial."

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Bush-style justice in a world where the Republicans have lowered the bar beyond the level of slime. One wonders just exactly what Bush Administration officials (and Republican congress-critters, Republican DoJ appointees and reich-wingers) are smoking when they claim they're on the side of truth, justice and the American way -- and whether that brain damage is permanent. This is an Open Thread.