Judge Bars Government From Listening in to Guantanamo Meetings

[cal04]

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that terror suspects held in Cuba must be allowed to meet with lawyers, and that the government cannot monitor their conversations.

In a strongly worded rebuke of the Bush administration, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly rejected the administration's argument that the detainees were not entitled to lawyers. The Supreme Court ruled in June that the then-600 foreign-born men held in the Navy-run prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could challenge their captivity in American courts. Kollar-Kotelly said that would be impossible without legal help.

"They have been detained virtually incommunicado for nearly three years without being charged with any crime. To say that (detainees') ability to investigate the circumstances surrounding their capture and detention is 'seriously impaired' is an understatement," she wrote.

She also said it was impossible for the men "to grapple with the complexities of a foreign legal system and present their claims to this court" without attorneys, access to a law library and fluency in English. The Justice Department had no immediate response to the decision.


http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB6RE90K0E.html


washington post link
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49155-2004Oct20.html?nav=rss_nation

[Q3JR4]

1. Woo hoo! Take that you bastards. EOM

[seventhson]

2. Perfect example of why we MUST get Kerry elected: Federal Judges!

Bush will put the worst fascist bastards on the bench and people like this judge will NOT be able to effectively protect us EVER again. These appointments are for life

[teryang]

3. It's about time!

...that a court said something about the destruction of the right to counsel. This asscraft eavesdropping shit is totalitarian.

[mike_c]

4. YES!!!! Another activist judge for the constitution!

It's about time the judiciary stood up to the greatest threats to the rule of law in the last century of American history-- Ashkkkroft's "Justice" Department and Rumsfeld's DOD.

[lovuian]

5. Its pretty obvious whats going on

we have imprisoned people because Bush is king