SCOTUS may rule today on Guantanamo Bay

[Judi Lynn]

SCOTUS may rule today on Guantanamo Bay
Case could determine future of detainees held at U.S. Naval base in Cuba

Updated: 8:13 a.m. CT June 26, 2006
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court may rule as early as today on a case that could determine the future of U.S. detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The court is considering a range of issues in the case of a former driver for Osama bin Laden, one of the ten detainees the Bush administration wants to put before a war crimes tribunal.

Salim Ahmed Hamdan is charged with conspiracy to commit terror acts against the U-S. His lawyer and those for other defendants say the tribunals would offer little legal protection and would be slanted for the government.

One of the issues the court is considering is whether President Bush had the authority to order the first American war crimes trials since World War Two. The president has suggested the high court's ruling will help him decide what to do with those ten detainees and the more than 400 others still held at Guantanamo.
(snip/)

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13553086/

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June 26, 2006

The Guantanamo suicides reopen a festering question of medical ethics
Science Notebook by Anjana Ahuja

GUANTANAMO BAY, the US detention camp in Cuba, has become a synonym for inhumanity: prolonged isolation with no recourse to the law; alleged beatings and torture; forcible feeding of hunger strikers; and now suicides.

The recent deaths of three detainees are certain to reopen a festering debate among psychologists and psychiatrists about whether they should be sharing their expertise on the human mind with military interrogators. The rumours that particular prisoners have suffered unusual punishments — one is said not to have seen sunlight for years — have stoked suspicions that mental health experts with access to detainees’ medical records have customised interrogation techniques (the prisoner allowed out only at night is reported to have a phobia of the dark). In the eyes of many, such assistance constitutes a violation of an ethical code, because it is about breaking minds rather than healing them.

Last year the ethics committee of the American Psychological Association (APA) published a report suggesting that it was ethically acceptable for “psychologists to serve in consultative roles to interrogation or information gathering processes for national security-related purposes”. Stephen Behnke, the APA’s director of ethics, maintained that consulting with military personnel constituted a “very valuable contribution to law enforcement and to national security”.

The APA’s emphasis, said Dr Behnke, is on “benign” information-gathering. But critics suggest that, in such a context, information-gathering amounts to breaking a prisoner’s will and is anything but benign.
(snip/...)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,6-2243225,00.html

[stepnw1f]

1. Well... We Know How the Fringe Judges Will Vote

[Jack Rabbit]

2. The fringe is the majority

And I really don't trust the Clinton appointees on matters like this, either.

I'm afraid the decision will be a blow for human decency and civilization.

[coalition_unwilling]

3. New suggested meme: Gitmo is a concentration camp

I think it's high time DU started saying this, so at least some part of the Democratic Party is speaking the truth.

[Jack Rabbit]

9. I gues torture chamber would be a little strong

But it wouldn't be inaccurate.

[coalition_unwilling]

10. On ABC's "GMAmerica" today, they actually showed the

inside of a so-called "interrogation room," complete with a plush Lazy-Boy for the detainee. ABC interviewer (think it was Terry Moran) asked no tough questions at all.

I only watch GMA for its entertainment and comedy (in a black humor sort of way) value anymore. I don't even bother protesting to ABC (our local ABC affiliate in Los Angeles is way worse).

[Jack Rabbit]

12. Hmmm . . . a guided tour, a comfy chair and no tough questions

Tell me about the "librul media" again.

I lived in LA a long, long time ago. Christine Lund was the anchor at KABC in those days. She was a pioneer in what I call "fashion model journalism".

Of course, that was also in the days when George Putnam was blazing the trails now traveled by Rush Limgaugh.

[Supersedeas]

4. probably Scalia Alito Thomas Roberts & Kennedy for *, others will dissent

[Rose Siding]

5. Roberts is recused on this one. At the hearing, 5 leaned against the WH

Here's some background on the case-

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1504051&mesg_id=1504051

I'm actually kind of looking forward to this one.

[redqueen]

6. No... can it be... good news?

*tries not to get hopes up*

[Terran1212]

7. The guy's in Gitmo because he was a professional driver for OBL?

So much for the most dangerous killers on earth.

[goclark]

8. Let me guess what happens, wake me when it's over :(

[coalition_unwilling]

11. Torture is as American as apple pie (n/t)