Monday, January 31, 2005
Federal Judge: Gitmo Detentions Illegal
And now the excrement hits the rotating blades. BushCo is going to delay this with appeals out the wazoo, but the point has been made.
A federal judge ruled this morning that special military reviews the Pentagon has used to determine the likely guilt of most of the 500 men held at a prison in Guantanamo Bay -- and to justify their continued imprisonment -- are illegal. [...] In today's decision, Green said the hearings, called Combatant Status Review Tribunals, are stacked against the detainees, and deny them crucial rights. She said some detainees may indeed be guilty and pose a danger to the United States, but the government must first give them a lawful hearing on the evidence against them. Green said the detainees are entitled to constitutional rights, including the advice of a lawyer and a fair chance to confront the evidence against them. The judge found the reviews have largely denied those rights.And here's the money shots:
Green noted in particular that there are widespread allegations, and some evidence, that detainees were tortured or abused during interrogations. She said such information makes extremely suspect any confessions of terrorist activities, upon which the military relies heavily in its process of determining that someone is an enemy combatant. Green also criticized the military for using an illogically broad definition of "enemy combatant" in deciding to hold Muslim men from dozens of countries for as long as three years. She said after reviewing classified material for the detainees, she saw many cases in which the military presented no evidence that individuals were ever engaged in actual combat or terrorist crimes.So long as there was still some semblance of a criminal-justice system in America, this ruling was inevitable. BushCo is finally beginning to bump up against reality.
More blogs about politics.
