Senate vote to cut Guantánamo Bay prisoner rights faces challenge

[Judi Lynn]

Senate vote to cut Guantánamo Bay prisoner rights faces challenge

· Decision denies detainees access to federal courts
· Democrat vows to stand by founding principles of US

Gary Younge in New York
Monday November 14, 2005
The Guardian

The US senate's decision to deny detainees at Guantánamo Bay the right to challenge their detention in a US court could be overturned this week, following protests from senators, civil rights groups and former military officers.
The senate voted 49-42 on Thursday to effectively reverse a 2004 supreme court decision that extended the writ of habeas corpus to prisoners in the US military camp in Cuba. The debate took less than an hour and the measure was tacked on to a bill on the military budget.
(snip)

Jeff Bingaman, a Democrat senator who has the support of several legal experts, plans to challenge the removal of the habeas corpus provision in the senate as early as today. "This is not a time to back away from the principles that this country was founded on," he said during the senate debate.

"Stripping jurisdiction from the court after they have decided, is far reaching and premature," said Lee Casey, a Washington attorney, who worked in the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush Snr. "Congress can override the supreme court, but in this case I don't consider it the right thing to do."
(snip/...)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/guantanamo/story/0,13743,1642004,00.html

[Benhurst]

1. "Antonia Ferrier, a spokeswoman for

Antonia Ferrier, a spokeswoman for the Republican moderate senator Olympia Snowe, describing her employer's concerns said: 'Do we need all those lawyers going down there to hear their complaints? It seems a little extreme to her. We're talking about enemy combatants.' "

Republican "moderate" Olympia Snowe. What a fascist! So much for pinning any hopes on her upholding the Constitution.

[rodeodance]

2. i got an email for a petition for this issue.

---- Original Message --------
Subject: URGENT: Save HABEAS CORPUS for unjustifiable detainees
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 02:30:50 -0800
From: the pen <[e-mail]>
To: xxxx


SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM PULLS A FAST ONE TO ABORT HABEAS CORPUS

With virtually no advance notice the Republican majority in the Senate (with the shameful complicity of Democrats Conrad, Landrieu, Lieberman, Nelson, and Wyden) approved a last minute amendment to the Defense Authorization Act to deny U.S. courts jurisdiction to examine the legality of detainee detention in Guantanamo and elsewhere. They did this in defiance of the not yet completely packed Supreme Court (another reason to reject Alito), whose authority they would annul. This is all despite the well-known FACT that many scooped up into these hell holes of torture are not terrorists at all, some even having been sold for bounty. Senator Bingaman immediately responded with a proposed corrective amendment (S.AMDT.2517) to restore jurisdiction.

ACTION PAGE: http://www.trotm.com/habeas.htm (Restore Habeas Corpus)

ACTION PAGE: http://www.trotm.com/no_conservative.htm (No right wing conservative to replace Sandra Day O'Connor)

Is our government telling us that there is no possible way any of those people can be convicted of a crime, by even an American jury, if they were to have a fair trial? We also know that our own military attorneys were fired for protesting because the tribunals already established were such miscarriages of justice. If there is nobody in detention who can be convicted of anything without special kangaroo courts, then the real terrorists have indeed won, for we will then have abdicated all moral authority. Please contact your senators at once to tell them to support the Bingaman amendment.

or to get no more simply email to [e-mail]