Gitmo ruling
The war on terror has caused many legal problems for the Bush Administration. Unfortunately, yesterday’s ruling, only compounds the administration’s dilemma. Their dilemma is simple — when you snatch someone off of the battlefield or off of the street, if you don’t follow due process, what do you do with the person? Do you hold them indefinitely without trial? Do you try them in some quasi-court?
for those, who were thinking that the Democrats have not done anything since gaining control of the Senate, I would point to the flurry of activity that is going on surrounding the Military Commissions Act. Senator Patrick Leahy, working with Republican Arlen Specter, is expected to introduce legislation that restores habeas corpus. Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the armed services committee, is writing legislation that will rewrite the military tribunals. All of this is critical legislation.
From WaPo:
The decision by U.S. military judges on Monday to dismiss the war crimes charges against two detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has reignited a debate over how to try those accused of terrorism, prompting members of Congress to challenge the Bush administration over a legal system that they say denies proper rights to detainees and has yet to bring a single case to trial.
In dismissing the charges against detainees from Canada and Yemen, the judges ruled that the Military Commissions Act of 2006 lacked jurisdiction because that law limits cases to those who are deemed “unlawful enemy combatants.” Because a tribunal had officially deemed both men “enemy combatants,” the letter of the law did not allow the detainees to go to trial, the judges determined. Prosecutors say they hope to try about 80 of the 380 detainees at Guantanamo, but all such cases are now on hold — one more setback in a five-year effort to bring even one case to trial. (more…)
