Supreme Court Revives Gitmo Torture Case

[babylonsister]

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2008/12/court_revives_case_of_former_g.php

Court revives case of former Gitmo detainees

Staff
AP Features

Dec 15, 2008 11:05 EST


The Supreme Court breathed new life Monday into a lawsuit filed by former detainees at Guantanamo Bay over alleged torture and abuse of their religious rights.

The justices threw out an appeals court ruling that dismissed claims by four British men that, during their time at the U.S. naval base in Cuba, they were beaten, shackled in painful stress positions, threatened by dogs and subjected to extreme medical care.

They also allege they were harassed while practicing their religion, including forced shaving of their beards, banning or interrupting their prayers, denying them copies of the Koran and prayer mats and throwing a copy of the Koran in a toilet bucket.

snip//

The justices instructed the appeals court to reconsider the lawsuit in light of their holding in June that the detainees have some rights under the Constitution.

The defendants in the case include retired Gen. Richard Myers, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The four who sued are Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal, Rhuhel Ahmed and Jamal Al-Harith, all British citizens and residents. They were sent back to Great Britain in 2004.

Rasul, Iqbal and Ahmed allege they traveled to Afghanistan from Pakistan to provide humanitarian relief the month after the Sept. 11 attacks. Al-Harith says he traveled to Pakistan the same month to attend a religious retreat.

The case is Rasul v. Myers, 08-235.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. But..but..torture helped win the war on terror!! Oh, wait..

Or, that other great argument: "But, they do it too!"

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. May justice prevail

This whole case makes me sick. Don't the people in power realize that, by denying the men their right to practice Islam, they play right into the hands of the extremists who insist that the US is out to destroy Islam?