Pentagon Responds to Guantanamo Bay Court Action (Circumvents Supremes)

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon, responding to Supreme Court rulings, will create a panel of military officers to review whether Guantanamo prisoners are being held legally and will notify them within 10 days of their right to contest their detention in U.S. courts, officials said on Wednesday.

The moves, criticized as inadequate by human rights activists, followed last week's U.S. Supreme Court decision that foreign terrorism suspects held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could turn to U.S. courts to challenge their confinement.
...

Defense and Justice Department officials briefed reporters at the Pentagon on condition of anonymity on the Bush administration's response to the June 28 Supreme Court ruling, as spelled out in a order from Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz to Navy Secretary Gordon England.

The officials said prisoners would not be allowed legal representation for proceedings before a new Combatant Status Review Tribunal, and said they did not know if the hearings would be open to the public.

The officials said each of the roughly 595 prisoners held at Guantanamo will be notified by July 17 of the opportunity to contest before the newly created tribunal of three military officers his status as an "unlawful enemy combatant" -- the classification given to them rather than POW. They also will be given notice of the basis for their detention, officials said.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=5613195&src=rss/ElectionCoverage§ion=news

Didn't the Supremes say that detainees have a right to access to a US court? Doesn't the use of a military panel determining their right to access to court contradict that ruling?

[DebJ]

1. If one doesn't feel obliged to obey the Constitution, one

doesn't feel obliged to listen to the Supreme Court, either, I suppose.

[Rose Siding]

2. AHA! Yep- On pg two:

snip>
But Amnesty International spokeswoman Alex Arriaga said, "It seems pretty clear that this goes out of its way to circumvent the Supreme Court decision."

[mom cat]

3. Bet they tell the prisoners three minutes before the deadline

then give them the form to fill out... in English.