Vote to strip rights of Guantanamo prisoners may be reconsidered

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON - For almost eight centuries the "great writ" of habeas corpus has been a bedrock principle of English and American law, from the Magna Carta to today's jails and courts. It's the means for a prisoner to contest his imprisonment before a judge.

That's one reason legal experts were stunned when the Senate, after an hour of debate, voted Thursday to overturn the Supreme Court's extension of habeas corpus protection to 500-plus detainees at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba.

Opponents vowed Friday to fight the measure, and negotiators on the issue said the Senate may reconsider it early next week. The White House, which previously has opposed oversight of Guantanamo by Congress and the courts, supports the Senate action, spokeswoman Jeanie Mamo said Friday.
....
John Hutson, a retired rear admiral and former judge advocate general of the Navy, is rounding up signatures from about 60 former officers who oppose the proposal.
....
"The conscience of our nation is up for grabs," said Michael Ratner, whose Center for Constitutional Rights was the first group to challenge the Guantanamo detentions.

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/13146113.htm

[texpatriot2004]

1. I'll sign in opposition, just tell me where to sign. nm

[teryang]

2. Ultimately, natural rights don't come from Congress

The courts may just strike such legislation.

[texpatriot2004]

4. The Supreme Court already ruled on this issue. n.t

[VegasWolf]

3. Wow, Bush et al. is taking us back to pre-Magna Carta Days!

:popcorn:

[formercia]

5. 'Kapo' Joe Leiberman voted for it

someone needs to send him a copy of the nazi era law that took rights away from Jews.

[formercia]

8. Election Year theme

'Kapo' Joe'
Time to Go

[OregonBlue]

6. Oregon Democrat Wyden also voted for it while Oregon Repug Smith

voted against. We really need to get rid of Wyden. He also voted for the Prescription Drug Benefit, etc. He's supposedly spearheading the drive against the Patriot Act. Obviously not very successful. We need to throw both Wyden and Smith out.

Also, need to get rid of Walden. Repug Rep from Oregon. Both Walden and Smith occasionally vote FOR an environmental issue or a social issue but only when they know that there are not enough votes for them to pass. We need to publicize their records so that folks can see that those liberal votes they occasionally make are meaningless.

[lovuian]

7. the Magna Carta and habeas corpus is the foundation of

a person's rights... does this tell you what this administration and regime is all about!!!

THE SENATE who are lawyers knows that this is the foundation of law and yet they would vote to get rid of it!!!

THE SENATE is filled with the most heinous and amoral men in the World!!!

We do have King George ruling for now but when the hunger riots start there won't be enough prisons to contain them!!!

[VegasWolf]

9. King George the Retard! nt

[Up2Late]

10. Guantanamo inmates to lose all rights (The Observer)

(I'm bit confused on this one, below it says, "...The amendment was tabled by Lindsay Graham, a South Carolina Republican, and passed by 49 votes to 42. I thought when you "Tabled " a bill, it meant it was not put to a vote, and might be "taken up" later? Why would it already have passed?)

Guantanamo inmates to lose all rights

US law proposal attacked by campaigners

David Rose
Sunday November 13, 2005
The Observer

Human rights campaigners are calling it the 'November surprise' - a last-minute amendment smuggled into a Pentagon finance bill in the US Senate last Thursday. It's effects are likely to be devastating: the permanent removal of almost all legal rights from 'war on terror' detainees at Guantanamo Bay and every other similar US facility on foreign or American soil.

'What the British law lord Lord Steyn once called a legal black hole had begun to be filled in,' said the British lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, speaking from Guantanamo, where he represents more than 40 detainees. 'It looks as if it is back, and deeper than before.' If the amendment passes the House of Representatives unmodified, one of its immediate effects is that Stafford Smith and all the other lawyers who act for Guantanamo prisoners will again be denied access, as they were for more than two years after Camp X-Ray opened in 2002.

The amendment was tabled by Lindsay Graham, a South Carolina Republican, and passed by 49 votes to 42. It reverses the Supreme Court's decision in June last year which affirmed the right of detainees to bring habeas corpus petitions in American federal courts.

As a result, about 200 of Guantanamo's 500 prisoners have filed such cases, many of them arguing that they are not terrorists, as the US authorities claim, and that the evidence against them is unreliable. None of them were given any kind of hearing when they were consigned to Guantanamo. Instead, the Americans unilaterally declared they were unlawful 'enemy combatants', mostly on the basis of assessments by junior military intelligence personnel, who were often reliant on interpreters whose skills internal Pentagon reports have criticised.

<http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1641703,00.html?gusrc=rss>
(more at link above)

[Lithos]

11. Tabled means something else in British politics

It means to bring up to a vote, not to stand it aside. It's the opposite of here. The Observer being British would be expected to use this definition.

As for binding, sorry, but no US Law overrides the US Constitution which is what the Supreme Court ruled on. This means this particular piece is unconstitutional and has already been ruled as such. Expect a brief fight, but it should be ultimately removed.

L-

[depakid]

12. Trouble is that Bush will NOT abide by the decision

This issue goes back to another rogue President- Andrew Jackson. When Jackson and the State of Georgia planned to "remove" the Cherokees from their homes, they sued. When the Supreme Court ruled in Worcester vs. Georgia that he had no right to do this, the President replied "John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it."

Thus began the trail of tears.

This is why the 5 Dems who went along with this are so dispicable-

[Kagemusha]

13. You are heavily mistaken.

The court ruled that in the absence of Congress passing a law JUST LIKE THIS ONE, the Executive Branch did not possess the authority to just blanket deny all rights to the detainees.

So Congress now is working on passing a law that directly denies the detainees such rights, in accordance with the legislative branch's power to administer the United States' powers of war.

If only they'd done this for oh, say, restraining torture..

[struggle4progress]

18. Constitution Article I Section 9 Para 2 limits suspension of habeas corpus

to cases of invasion and rebellion

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

14. Yeah, right. As if they had any "rights" up to now

:mad:

[Kagemusha]

15. The courts just ruled they didn't definitively NOT have rights.

It was a pretty weak ruling honestly. I also really have to wonder how far they can take the "the US is under invasion by Evil People" excuse and try to make suspension of rights permanent.

But seriously, is anything in this proposed law stopping Bush from shipping US citizens there and ensuring they can't appeal anything?

[Porcupine]

16. All persons have rights or no-one is free.

Those imprisoned at Guantanamo currently have fewer actual rights than most US housepets and some trees. This is not lost on the rest of the world.

[Judi Lynn]

17. What happened to Lindsay Graham? Had he not given people the impression

he was backing away from the worst part of the chickenhawk agenda? According to the article:

A senior Pentagon lawyer who asked not to be named said that the Graham amendment will have another consequence. The same Pentagon bill also contains a clause, sponsored by Graham and the Arizona Republican John McCain, to outlaw torture at US detention camps - a move up to now fiercely resisted by the White House. 'If detainees can't talk to lawyers or file cases, how will anyone ever find out if they have been abused,' the lawyer said.
(snip/...)

It will be worse than ever, now, for these prisoners.

[Carolab]

19. Maybe Lindsay needs an ethics course. n/t

[Up2Late]

20. kick n/t

:kick:

[goforit]

21. What laws they vote for can be also done onto them. May they not forget.

.........So be it!!!