Habeas Corpus of Uighur Prisoners at Guantanamo
08 Oct 2008 Leave a Comment
in Amnesty International, Bush administration, China, Guantanamo, Habeas Corpus, Human Rights, War on Terror Tags: Ricardo M. Urbina, Uighur
According to the New York Times, Federal Court Judge, Ricardo M. Urbina, has ordered the Bush administration to release 17 Uighur detainees from Guantanamo Bay on Friday. While the U.S. conceded over a year ago, the Uighurs, members of a Muslim minority in China, were not enemy combatants; the Bush administration still contends they should be held at Guantanamo, as they cannot be returned to China for fear of torture, and have found no other country to agree to take them.
“I think the moment has arrived for the court to shine the light of constitutionality on the reasons for detention,” Judge Urbina said.
Saying the men had never fought the United States and were not a security threat, he tersely rejected Bush administration claims that he lacked the power to order the men set free in the United States and government requests that he stay his order to permit an immediate appeal.
Judge Urbina is ordering the 17 detainees be brought to his court on October 10, according to Amnesty International.
The Uighurs would then be released, with the assistance of members of the local Uighur community, religious groups and refugee settlement agencies who have offered their support to help the detainees adjust to their lives outside Guantánamo.
The Judge has also scheduled a hearing for them on October 16 and “ordered that an official from the US Department of Homeland Security be present at that hearing.”
The U.S. Department of Justice is filing an emergency motion for a stay, pending an appeal to the Court of Appeals and the case could go to the Supreme Court.
As the New York Times article noted, “Judge Urbina’s decision came in a habeas corpus lawsuit authorized by a landmark Supreme Court ruling in June that gave detainees the right to have federal judges to review the reason for their detention.”
The centuries-old doctrine of habeas corpus permits a judge to demand production of a prisoner, a power Judge Urbina sought to exercise with his order that the men be brought to him.
“I want to see the individuals,” he said.
According to Amnesty International, the U.S. administration “has claimed authority to continue to detain those it no longer considers ‘enemy combatants’ under the executive’s ‘necessary power to wind up wartime detentions in an orderly fashion’.”
So, not only is the U.S. saying it can hold people without charge indefinitely at Guantanamo; but even if the charges prove unfounded, they can still detain them. This does not seem very orderly to me; not in a democracy; not in the U.S.A.. This is not the America I Believe In.
Amnesty International is calling for the U.S. government to “comply with Judge Urbina’s order, drop it’s appeals, bring the Uighur detainees to the USA, and work to find lawful, safe and durable solutions in all their cases.”
Take action online on the “War on Terror” page:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/page.do?n=38
Or from the main page, www.amnestyusa.org , left tab “Our Priorities”, top item on the pull down menu, “War on Terror”
Habeas Found?
12 Jun 2008 1 Comment
in Amnesty International, Barack Obama, Bush administration, Civil Liberties, Guantanamo, Habeas Corpus, Human Rights, John McCain Tags: Supreme Court, U.S. Constitution
Today the Supreme Court ruled in favor of habeas corpus once again, ruling as unconstitutional the provision in the Military Commissions Act of 2006 that denied detainees the right of filing a habeas corpus petition. Habeas corpus, first used in England in 1305, is the right, guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution, to ask for the reasons for and challenge your imprisonment. It is the idea that no one, not even a King, Queen or President, can arbitrarily lock someone away without any charge or right to defend yourself against that charge. An idea under attack by the Bush administration, under the guise of September 11.
As noted by today’s New York Times article, the administration first tried to claim the laws that U.S. Courts could hear habeas corpus petitions for detainees didn’t apply, because Guantanamo was outside the U.S. and U.S. jurisdiction. Huh, who’s in control at Gitmo, then, the Cubans? Right. Fortunately, the Supreme Court didn’t fall for that one either, and said since the U.S. was in control of Guantanamo, U.S. courts could indeed hear the habeas corpus petitions. Then the 2005 Detainee Treatment Act and Military Commission Act of 2006 were passed by Congress and signed into law by the President, providing an alternative process that Amnesty International, the ACLU and others found inadequate; as does the Supreme Court now (or at least the majority).
Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said the truncated review procedure provided by a previous law, the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, “falls short of being a constitutionally adequate substitute” because it failed to offer “the fundamental procedural protections of habeas corpus.”
Justice Kennedy declared: “The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times.”
Justice Scalia saw things differently, as quoted in the Washington Post:
The decision brought biting dissents from the four conservative justices, with Justice Antonin Scalia taking the unusual step of summarizing his opposition from the bench. “America is at war with radical Islamists,” he wrote, adding that the decision “will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed.” He went on to say: “The Nation will live to regret what the court has done today.”
Does doing away with our constitutional safeguards really make us safer? Remember the fact sheet from Amnesty on Guantanamo from the January 11th Global Protest? Statistics like: 53% of detainees not determined to have committed any hostile act against the United States, 40% with no definitive connection with Al Qaeda, 18% with no definitive connection with Al Qaeda or the Taliban; with only 8% characterized as Al Qaeda fighters.
How did we get them? “At the time when the United States offered large bounties for suspected enemies: 86% [of the] detainees were not detained on the battle field but instead arrested by either Pakistan or the Northern Alliance and turned over to United States custody.”
Are we really safer at night because anyone can turn in someone they may not like for cash, with the person having no right to contest, or even know the charges against them? Would we feel more secure, if, after the next Tim McVeigh, that logic is applied on U.S. soil for the “enemy within”?
Fear not, then. Bush is looking for new loopholes, according to the Washington Post:
A disappointed President Bush was not as dramatic. “We’ll abide by the court’s position,” he said in Rome, in the midst of a European tour. “That doesn’t mean I have to agree with it.”
He also said the administration will consider new legislation “so that we can safely say . . . to the American people, ‘We’re doing everything we can to protect you.’ “
Why do I not feel more secure?
According to the New York Times, McCain is “concerned” about the ruling (he helped craft the Military Commissions Act). I’m happy to say that Obama, on the other hand, is on the side of the Constitution:
Mr. Obama issued a statement calling the decision “a rejection of the Bush administration’s attempt to create a legal black hole at Guantánamo” that he said was “yet another failed policy supported by John McCain.”
“This is an important step,” he said of the ruling, “toward re-establishing our credibility as a nation committed to the rule of law, and rejecting a false choice between fighting terrorism and respecting habeas corpus. Our courts have employed habeas corpus with rigor and fairness for more than two centuries, and we must continue to do so as we defend the freedom that violent extremists seek to destroy.”
I am glad to see habeas back, but as you’ll see from our Amnesty International main page, our work is not done. Guantanamo has not closed. We still have extra-judicial rendition. We need to convince Congress not to go against the Supreme Court ruling (and the Constitution) this time. See AI’s press release, take action online, or even consider joining a Close Guantanamo Delegation to the local offices of your U.S. Senator or Representative.
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