Full excerpt of the CNS News "news this hour" report (paragraph breaks added by me)
Guantanamo prisoners cannot challenge their detention in U.S. courts, an appeals court ruled Tuesday.
The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia is considered a victory for the Bush administration. The military tribunal system had been struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, but the Republican-controlled Congress gave President Bush the authority under a law he signed in October.
"I'm pleased the court understood Congress's intent to deny enemy combatant terror suspects the ability to bring lawsuits under the habeas statutes," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in a statement. He played a leading role in the drafting and eventual passage into law of the Military Commissions Act (MCA). "The bill contained a provision allowing federal judges to conduct limited reviews of specific procedural matters involving enemy combatant trials, and prohibited civil remedies such as habeas corpus petitions and other actions," said Graham.
A human rights group was disappointed by the ruling. "The Court of Appeals ruling runs counter to one of the most important checks on unbridled executive power enshrined in the U.S. Constitution: the right to challenge imprisonment in a full and fair proceeding. If allowed to stand, this ruling would permit the government to hold prisoners, potentially indefinitely, without having to show to a court of law why the person has been detained," said Hina Shamsi, deputy director of Human Rights First's Law and Security Program.
The Consitution applies to United States citizens. And, the Geneva Conventions state that the prisoners at G'itmo can be held until the end of the war. Perhaps the human rights, ie, terrorist support, group would take Club G'itmo vacationers in to their own homes. I have yet to hear them make the offer.
Meanwhile, as Jane at The Jawa Report points out, a vacationer from G'itmo was detained and arrested on his way to Iraq
Fahd al-Utaibi a/k/a Naif Fahd Al Aseemi Al Utaibi arrived in Saudi Arabia May 18, 2006 from Guantanamo, along with 14 others released by the US. He is currently on trial in Yemen for forging travel documents in order to join the jihad in Iraq.
