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June 24, 2008
Latest From USA Hating Lawyers and Judges: U.S. Court Says GITMO Detainees Not Enemy Combatants
US court says Guantanamo detainees not enemy combatants
A U.S. federal appeals court has struck down the U.S. military's classification of a Guantanamo Bay detainee as an enemy combatant.
This is the first time the U.S. court system has overruled the Bush administration's designation of a detainee since the Guantanamo facility began operations in early 2002.
The court ruled in favor of a Chinese Muslim, Huzaifa Parhat, who has spent the last six years in detention and is one of more than 100 detainees to challenge their enemy combatant status in the U.S. judicial system. The court directed the U.S. military to release Parhat, transfer him out of Guantanamo, or hold a new proceeding to once again determine his status.
The court announced its decision without providing any details, saying the ruling contains classified information. The Department of Defense did not immediately comment on the matter.
Human rights groups say the appeals court ruling is a landmark decision for Guantanamo detainees, yet one with little practical benefit for Parhat.
Stacy Sullivan is a counter-terrorism advisor for New York-based Human Rights Watch.
"He Parhat will probably not be released," she said. "He is a Chinese Uighur, and there are a number of Chinese Uighurs being held at Guantanamo who are already declared no longer enemy combatants. But they cannot leave Guantanamo because they have nowhere to go. They cannot be sent back to China because they have a well-founded fear of torture in China, and the United States to its credit will not send them back there. So the Uighurs are pretty much stuck in Guantanamo."
In 2006, the United States released five Uighurs from Guantanamo and resettled them in Albania. China, which regards the Uighurs as terrorists and separatists, demanded Albania to return them to China. Albania did not comply.
U.S. authorities believe some Uighurs have links to al-Qaeda. But they admit the Uighurs held at Guantanamo never fought against the United States, nor did they take part in the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
Human Rights Watch's Stacy Sullivan says the plight of the Guantanamo Uighurs points to a real dilemma facing the United States if at some point it decides to close Guantanamo, an action favored by both presumptive Republican and Democratic presidential nominees.
"There are about 50 detainees there who have said they do not want to go home because they fear being tortured: Uzbeks, Libyans, Uighurs, a few other nationalities," she said. "What is to be done with them? It is simple enough to transfer those for whom we have evidence of terrorism and try them in our federal court system. But the 50 detainees who cannot go home, it is unclear what is going to happen to them, and that is going to make closing Guantanamo really difficult."
The federal appeals court ruling follows a U.S. Supreme Court decision earlier this month affirming the right of Guantanamo suspects to challenge their detention in U.S. civilian courts.
Wild Thing's comment........
When lawyers are the front-line on the war on terror, you can fear for our safety. Undermining of our intelligence and rewarding the terrorist.
I wish we could lock up ALL our lawyers and Judges. What good are they anyway. They are constantly serving the enemy, the criminal and NOT the victim. They put bad guys back out onto the streets all the time and could care less about doing the right thing.
Somebody sworn to kill Americans and non believers isn’t an enemy combatant????
As far as this court saying that guy is not an enemy combatant, we’re on the slippery slope. Sheesh!
The Supreme Court ruling was that these people at Gitmo have the rights of habeas corpus as any U.S. citizen would. The next step was this lower court saying that this one guy is not an enemy combatant. I fear that the slippery slope is that we won’t legally be able to classify anyone as an enemy combatant, because it won’t be allowed by courts.
This war against Islam is not like other wars, there will be no treaty, no terms of surrender, no conquering enemy territory. Instead, there is only vigilance until the enemy’s capacity to project power is quelled.
Who needs enemies? We will destroy ourselves from within. Our ‘law’ will ensure it.
Posted by Wild Thing at June 24, 2008 03:47 AM
Comments
If only they could take those lawyers and drop them into Baghdad, or some other city in Iraq, unescorted and tell them to find their way back to the Green Zone.
Posted by: BobF at June 24, 2008 09:07 AM
There is a very easy way to solve this,close
Gitmo and ship all the prisoners to Iraq and
give the Iraqis the keys and say their your
problem now guys,treat them nice.
Posted by: Tincan Sailor at June 24, 2008 10:57 AM
Hey TinCan.....there is one other way to handle them that good old Stacy hasn't figured out yet (thank God)........let them all migrate to the U.S. through Mexico!!!!!!! Then they can get those jobs Americans don't want, not pay any taxes, and still collect welfare and social security!!!!!!!! And if they are being treated so bad at Gitmo, why don't they want to go back to China??? Because they know how they will be treated there!!!!!!!!!!!!! DUH!!!!!!!!
Posted by: John at June 24, 2008 11:07 AM
Why, you'd think that William O. Douglas was resurrected. He and Roger N. Baldwin are alive and well in the embodiment of Justices Stephen Breyer, Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David Souter and John Paul Stevens. The ACLU wins again.
Posted by: Jack at June 24, 2008 11:46 AM
By all means, let's relocate any prisoners from Gitmo that federal court judges order released to the county jail closest to the judge's residence.
Something to keep in mind November 4th. Do you want Barrack Hussein Obama appointing federal judges for the next four (or eight) years?
http://www.coxandforkum.com/archives/04.12.02.GitmoAbsurd-X.gif
Posted by: Les at June 24, 2008 04:41 PM
BobF I would LOVE that!
Posted by: Wild Thing at June 24, 2008 07:43 PM
Tincan Sailor, love the part " treat them nice" heh heh Doubt they will be nice to them like the liberals in America would be.
My guess is some of them will be set free to go back because of the lawyers. So far two of them that have been set free have gone home and then both killed some of our soldiers and also a few of the citizens of Iraq in suicide bombings.
Posted by: Wild Thing at June 24, 2008 07:48 PM
John, LOL that is an idea and can we shoot them as they try to come across the border? haha
Just a thought.
Posted by: Wild Thing at June 24, 2008 07:50 PM
Jack, it would only take me about one month as a dictator, the retire, to get rid of the ACLU, CAIR and close our borders with stealth protection. Lie detector tests to all prisoners at GITMO, and the guilty get shot at dawn. haha And that would be on my first day of work. LOL
Posted by: Wild Thing at June 24, 2008 07:54 PM
Les, haha see that is the perfect graphic.
I am not looking forward to Nov.4th. Very scary.
Posted by: Wild Thing at June 24, 2008 07:57 PM
