Gitmo Detainee’s Lawyer ‘Not Allowed To Tell Him’ He’s No Longer An ‘Enemy Combatant’

[BurtWorm]

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/25/parhat-combatant-solitary/

Nearly two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that detainees held at Guantánamo Bay have the right to habeas corpus and can thus challenge their detention in civilian courts, a U.S. Court of Appeals dealt another blow to the Bush administration’s detention policy.

The appeals court ruled that the Pentagon improperly designated Huzaifa Parhat, an ethnic Uighur Chinese national, an “enemy combatant” after being swept up by the U.S. military in Afghanistan in 2001 and then sent to Guantánamo Bay, where he has been held since.

Despite the ruling, Parhat has yet to see any of its benefits. In fact, he doesn’t even know about it. Parhat’s lawyer told CBC radio’s As It Happens last night that Parhat is currently being held in solitary confinement and “has no idea” the appeals court ruled in his favor because, he added, “I’m not allowed to tell him”:

DEREK STOFFEL, CBC HOST: Mr. Willett, what’s your client’s reaction to this ruling?

SABIN WILLETT (PARHAT’S LAWYER): Boy what a great question that is because my client doesn’t know about this ruling because I’m not allowed to tell him. <…> He’s sitting in solitary confinement today. He has no idea what’s happened as far as I know.

...

[But....]

1. Making him...

almost as clueless as Bu$h.:hurts:

[no limit]

2. This is sad. How can we as a country continue to allow this to happen in our name?

[damntexdem]

3. You have the right to appeal, but you can't exercise it ...

because we refuse to let you find out that you have the right to appeal.

Perfect Bushista logic.

[pleah]

4. They will kill him before they will let him out.

[BurtWorm]

5. They have probably already driven him so insane he doesn't know who he is anymore.

But obviously they're not concerned about him. They're concerned about what the world knows about him.

[riverdeep]

6. That must be like some sort of Kafka-esque existence.

Guy was a former fruit peddler who went to fight for his ethnic groups freedom, was picked up by the U.S., and now sits in his seventh year of confinement. The article says the U.S. doesn't want to return him to China because the Chinese consider him a terrorist and supposedly, no other country will take him (just looking out for him!). So, putting him in solitary confinement is the answer?

Dick Cheney should be rotting in that cell.

[BurtWorm]

7. kick

[Solly Mack]

8. that's certainly typical of the Bush regime

so typical I have to wonder at anyone ever expressing surprise at Bush's actions