Gitmo Detainee’s Lawyer ‘Not Allowed To Tell Him’ He’s No Longer An ‘Enemy Combatant’

[kpete]

Gitmo Detainee’s Lawyer ‘Not Allowed To Tell Him’ He’s No Longer An ‘Enemy Combatant’

Nearly two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that detainees held at Guantánamo Bay have the right to habeas corpus and can thus challenge their detention in civilian courts, a U.S. Court of Appeals dealt another blow to the Bush administration’s detention policy.

The appeals court ruled that the Pentagon improperly designated Huzaifa Parhat, an ethnic Uighur Chinese national, an “enemy combatant” after being swept up by the U.S. military in Afghanistan in 2001 and then sent to Guantánamo Bay, where he has been held since.

Despite the ruling, Parhat has yet to see any of its benefits. In fact, he doesn’t even know about it. Parhat’s lawyer told CBC radio’s As It Happens last night that Parhat is currently being held in solitary confinement and “has no idea” the appeals court ruled in his favor because, he added, “I’m not allowed to tell him”:

DEREK STOFFEL, CBC HOST: Mr. Willett, what’s your client’s reaction to this ruling?

SABIN WILLETT (PARHAT’S LAWYER): Boy what a great question that is because my client doesn’t know about this ruling because I’m not allowed to tell him. .... He’s sitting in solitary confinement today. He has no idea what’s happened as far as I know.
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/25/parhat-combatant-solitary/

[jeff30997]

1. K&R

That's totally disgusting!

[Dogtown]

2. Scofflaws

K&R

[Hydra]

3. "I know how we'll get around this silly law thing!" Says Bush

"We just won't apply it!"

[NNN0LHI]

4. If you don’t pay, they take you in and turn you over to the Americans as Taliban or Al-Qaeda

http://www.peacereporter.net/dettaglio_articolo.php?idc=0&idart=11179

Face to face with the mercenaries. Two years ago in May 2006, PeaceReporter conducted an investigative report on the topic from Helmand province. The following are extracts from that report. Just outside of Grishk stands a US military base: a small fortress in the middle of the desert with the stars and stripes atop a wooden tower. The base is home to one of the many “unofficial” US prisons where suspected Taliban and Al-Qaeda are interrogated and tortured before being sent off to Kandahar, Bagram, and eventually Guantanamo.

But the base is manned by Afghan mercenaries, not American troops. The locals call them khakhprush, “men who have been sold to the enemy.” They are kids from nearby villages. They don’t wear a uniform. When they’re not out on a mission for or with the Americans, they’re hanging out on the carpets they put down in front of the barracks surrounding the walls of the base. They spend their days drinking tea, smoking hashish and maintaining their arsenal of rifles, machine guns, and rocket launchers.

<snip> They just use fighting the Taliban as an excuse and they’re protected by the people who hire them. They’re criminals who go around killing and robbing people, breaking into homes, and terrorizing people just to make money. If you don’t pay, they take you in and turn you over to the Americans as Taliban or an Al-Qaeda terrorist.”

[Canuckistanian]

5. Whoever's preventing him from knowing his rights is obstructing justice

They had better start lawyering up for January.