rssObama Justice Department Backs Bush on Bagram
Friday, February 20, 2009 at 8:04 pm
- 9 Comments
President Obama’s Justice Department today, in a two-sentence filing, backed the Bush administration’s position on the 600 or more detainees being held at the U.S. military’s detention facility at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. The department reaffirmed that the prisoners are not entitled to any constitutional rights and, most importantly, may not challenge their detention in a U.S. court.
As I’ve written before, the legal battle over the rights of prisoners at the base, where at least two prisoners have been killed during interrogations, has taken place largely on papers submitted to a federal judge. Judge John Bates of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has been presiding over the habeas corpus petitions of four Bagram detainees, all of whom were picked up in different parts of the world and sent to Bagram for indefinite detention. The prisoners claim their situation is just like that of the prisoners at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, and therefore they deserve the same constitutional rights — as well as the right to have a neutral judge determine whether they’re being held lawfully.
Not so, said the Bush administration. Although human rights lawyers representing the detainees had hoped the Obama administration would change the government’s position and at least grant their clients the right to a hearing, today they were sorely disappointed.
“The hope we all had in President Obama to lead us on a different path has not turned out as we’d hoped,” Tina Monshipour Foster, executive director of the International Justice Network, which has been representing the four men, told the Associated Press. “We all expected better.”
The government still won’t say — at least not publicly — just how many prisoners captured outside of Afghanistan are being held at Bagram.
9 Comments
Comment posted February 20, 2009 @ 8:14 pm
That is disappointing that the Obama administration is backing the previous adminstration's view on this issue — I voted for Obama in hopes that we'd actually see the change that he promised. They won't even give those people a hearing to determine if they are being lawfully detained? Actually…more than disappointing, that strikes me as just plain wrong. What a shame.
Pingback posted February 20, 2009 @ 9:54 pm
[...] Anderson Indiana News Community | Anderson Free Press wrote an interesting post today on Obama Justice Department Backs Bush on BagramHere’s a quick excerpt“The hope we all had in President Obama to lead us on a different path has not turned out as we’d hoped,” Tina Monshipour Foster… [...]
Comment posted February 21, 2009 @ 4:08 am
Given that this situation seems to lie somewhere between Johnson v. Eisentrager (noncitizens captured outside the U.S. and held outside of the U.S. at all times (assuming that Bagram is not under exclusive U.S. jurisdiction and control, unlike Gitmo)) and Rasul v. Bush (not yet afforded process, not nationals of hostile nation), it's hard to say that Obama's position is some type of indefensible deviation from established legal principles. Additionally, there are both constitutional justifications (preventing judicial infringement on the political branches' war powers) and policy justifications (allowing swift and decisive conduct in war) which suggest that we may not want to allow enemy combatants held captive in a combat zone to access the U.S. court system.
Comment posted February 21, 2009 @ 10:10 am
Living up to ones promises; being true to ones word is hard. It takes guts. It takes character. it takes the courage of ones convictions. For a politician it takes being able to say to the American Public the actions I take might in some way lead to another attack on the US, but to not preserve and defend the Constitution is a legacy I will not leave to my children.
So far Obama has voted for FISA and immunity for the telcoms
Not stopped rendition
Not totally ruled out torture
Not closed Guantanamo
Not stopped domestic spying
Not stopped the abuse of the state secrets defense
Not stopped coercing our allies as in the British case of blackmailing the British Government
Not stopped using secret evidence in holding prisoners
Not closed Bagram
Not removed troops from Iraq
Not increased government transparency
In the dark all cats are Grey.
Comment posted February 21, 2009 @ 11:13 am
One more step down the slippery slope, crime by tolerance and then by participation.
Its a shame that government folks can't see what parents teach their kids, probably what Obama teaches his kids. Lying and cover up lead to more lying and cover ups. You can say I'm being naive and simplistic by applying this to our government, but I know the world would look at America and President Obama with wonder, admiration and awe, if he told his government to be transparent and tell the truth, and then backed it up with actions.
The world including radical Islamists would have a new opinion of America and would find it hard to repeat the great Satan or the well you do it too argument.
Pingback posted February 22, 2009 @ 2:40 pm
[...] Obama Justice Department Backs Bush on Bagram [...]
Comment posted February 26, 2009 @ 11:45 pm
That'll be Obama's “honeymon period” used up in one clean swipe then!
So, it turns out that it is true that when America elects a new president they are doing nothing more than electing a new face for the same, never-changing government. There is apparently no democracy in America. It is just an illusion to keep the masses quiet.
Comment posted February 27, 2009 @ 7:45 am
That'll be Obama's “honeymon period” used up in one clean swipe then!
So, it turns out that it is true that when America elects a new president they are doing nothing more than electing a new face for the same, never-changing government. There is apparently no democracy in America. It is just an illusion to keep the masses quiet.
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