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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsObama Administration Writes Rights Out of New Indefinite Detention Law
On April 5, the Defense Department quietly sent a report to Congress indicating how it intends to implement a new law requiring lawyers and judgesfor detainees held in long-term U.S. military custody. As expected, DoD largely wrote the new rights out of existence, ensuring theyd be accorded to few, if any, detainees. Whats more, it severely limited the scope of judicial review even that small number will receive.
Originally intended to apply to the prisoners held by the United States at the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, Section 1024 of the National Defense Authorization Act is now more likely to apply to some future category of indefinite detainees held by the U.S. government. And therein lies the problem.
Just three months after President Obama signed the NDAA in December, the United States negotiated with Afghanistan to transfer most of the 3,200 detainees imprisoned at the Detention Facility in Parwan, as the U.S.-run prison at Bagram is called, to Afghan custody within six months. That transfer agreement doesnt mention anything about what sort of review those detainees will get from the Afghan authorities or, for that matter, whether theyll get any sort of hearing at all. Because there isnt an indefinite detention law in Afghanistan spelling out the grounds for detention or any entitlement for due process, those prisoners could end up stuck in an Afghan prison for many more years without charge or trial.
The new Defense Department regulations obviously wont apply to them. But they may apply to some of the 50 non-Afghan detainees who remain at the U.S.-run prison, and to any new suspected insurgents the U.S. military may capture in the future.
Read more: http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/2012/04/19/obama-administration-writes-rights-out-of-new-indefinite-detention-law/
teddy51
(3,491 posts)to which they are able to apply this law.
Fire Walk With Me
(38,893 posts)Fire Walk With Me
(38,893 posts)because this trend must be countered