“torture is a foreseeable consequence of the military’s detention of suspected enemy combatants.”

[rodeodance]

Court throws out Islam-based Gitmo claims

by James Oliphant

A federal appeals court today tossed a lawsuit brought against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other officials by four released British prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, who alleged that they were tortured and denied the right to practice Islam.

..........

They also say they were tortured, beaten and humiliated. They had sought $10 million in damages. A federal trial judge dismissed most of the claims saying U.S. officials couldn't be sued for actions taken in wartime, but the religious act claim and some other claims survived. (A story here in the Tribune took a closer look at the case.)

But in an opinion released Friday Judge Karen Lecraft Henderson of U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington wrote that the religious freedom act does not apply to the Guantanamo detainees because they are not "persons" for the purposes of U.S law.

The three-judge panel also held that the U.S. officials were immune from the torture claims because “torture is a foreseeable consequence of the military’s detention of suspected enemy combatants.” And the panel found that, even if torture and religious abuse were illegal, defendants were immune under the Constitution because they could not have reasonably known that detainees at Guantánamo had any constitutional rights............

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/01/court_throws_out_islambased_gi.html#more

[Avalux]

1. What about HUMAN rights?

Their treatment isn't bound to the Constitution - it's bound to common human decency.

[atreides1]

2. Human Rights

Are only important when it isn't being decided by judges who probably wear a swastika under their robes, to show their true beliefs!!

Just a personal opinion.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. That's one tortured opinion.

[louis-t]

4. Two things: Note that it says "suspected" enemy combatant

And it's only a "foreseeable consequence" if you condone it.