The Bush regime is using a new law passed by Congress last month to
stop the courts from hearing appeals by Guantanamo detainees. The Detainee Treatment Act, signed into
law Dec. 30, severely limits the legal rights of detainees, including
to much of any appeals in federal court. In a brief to the Supreme
Court, the Justice Department is using the law, which it says applies
retroactively, to argue that the federal courts have
no jurisdiction to hear appeals arguing the legality of military trials for terrorism suspects. These detainees are held in
Guantanamo Bay, and put before military commissions. Basically, Bush
can declare someone an “enemy combatant”, they are tortured at
Guantanamo without much (if any) access to lawyers, tried in a military
court, and not allowed to appeal any of this.
At the same time, the Bush regime is seeking
to eliminate habeas corpus lawsuits filed on behalf of nearly every
Guantanamo detainee, reasoning that they have clogged federal courts
with “frivolous actions”. Apparently the basic legal right to habeus
corpus is considered “frivolous” to this regime while people’s lives
hang in the balance.
It is a dangerous moment in history when the regime presiding over
the most powerful military in the world arrogates itself the power to
detain, torture, and use military courts, all without legal oversight or right for the detainees to appeal.
The World Can’t Wait! Drive Out the Bush Regime!
(source: “U.S. Seeks to Avoid Detainee Ruling”, by Dan Eggen and Josh White, Washington Post, January 13, 2006)