And NOT Just At Gitmo

[kpete]

And Not Just At Gitmo

Today's Washington Post has an article on another Bush detainee, only this one has been held in a Navy brig here in the US for the past five years without charges being brought.

Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri was close to going on trial for fraud when prosecutors marched into an Illinois courtroom with a demand. Dismiss the charges, they said, because President Bush had just designated the defendant an enemy combatant.

Marri's attorneys protested, but U.S. Attorney Jan Paul Miller declared that the military had already taken custody of the Qatari national, now deemed an al-Qaeda sleeper agent. "There is no longer a judicial proceeding before this court," he said.

With that, Marri was whisked to a Navy brig in Charleston, S.C., where he has spent more than five years. His case raises a question with vast implications for presidential power and civil liberties: Can the military indefinitely detain, without charge, a U.S. citizen or legal resident seized on U.S. soil? (Emphasis added)

more at:
http://cabdrollery.blogspot.com/2008/11/and-not-just-at-gitmo.html

[Solly Mack]

1. Of course it is not just GTMO

Does anyone really believe those secret prisons have closed?


ALL military prisons should be checked as well.

[nosmokes]

2. How do the Judge and the prosecutor, as officers of the court,

manage to justify their inaction in allowing the military to take custody of the man? If they have any conscience at all they they shouldn't be able to look in a mirror or get a night's sleep.

[Solly Mack]

3. With this

Military Commissions Act of 2006

http://www.aclu.org/safefree/detention/commissions.html

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1004-35.htm

They justify it by claiming they were just following the law...and thanks to those members of Congress who voted YES - they are

As for a conscience...they couldn't possibly have one to hide behind a criminal law that way

At the time of his detention, Bush claimed the power to do as he did...with the MCA of 2006, Congress gave Bush legal cover