... and Joe endorsed the denial of habeas corpus to

[monarch]

Guantanamo prisoners:

Put My Son on Trial -- or Free Him

By Khalid Al-Odah
Saturday, September 2, 2006; Page A29

"KUWAIT CITY -- The United States recently responded to pressure from the German government and released detainee Murat Kurnaz from Guantanamo Bay. Although he spent four years in the U.S. prison there, Kurnaz was never charged with a crime, and there are no indications that he was involved in any terrorist-related activity. Had he been afforded his constitutional right to due process upon detention, it is highly likely that this innocent man would not have wasted four years of his life in prison.

"Two years ago the Supreme Court mandated due process for men held at Guantanamo. More recently, in the case of Hamdan v. Rumsfeld , the court declared that military tribunals are not an appropriate method for these trials. Even so, the Bush administration maintains that the Hamdan ruling directly applies only to the 10 detainees who have been formally labeled "enemy combatants." What happens to the other 450 or so detainees who have not been charged with any crimes and who, like Murat Kurnaz, are likely to be innocent?

...

"As hundreds of innocent men sit in prison, why is the Bush administration still fighting the idea that American values embrace the right to a fair trial and that a jerry-built military commission represents no such thing?

"For me, as the father of a Kuwaiti prisoner held at the camp, this news of weeks past has been a part of my everyday life for 4 1/2 years. My son, Fawzi, was a schoolteacher in a region near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border before he was captured by bounty hunters. I'm told that he now lives alone in a cell at Guantanamo; our only contact with him consists of outdated letters with whole sections blacked out. The anguish is endless for families that have been kept in the dark for over four years while their husbands, sons and brothers suffer in a secret world.

....

"My son is not a terrorist. He was, in fact, a great admirer of American political values and legal principles before he was kidnapped and sent to Guantanamo. Our family is nonetheless willing to undergo the ordeal of trial and judgment, if only the U.S. government would allow it to happen."

....

The writer founded the Kuwaiti Family Committee four years ago to secure the legal rights of foreign nationals imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/01/AR2006090101535.html