There has never been a habeas corpus hearing in this country, either? Huh.
Does your mother ever ask you when she washes your underwear why it is so sticky when all you’ve done is post to a message board?
But what exactly are they reviewing? What specific rights do the detainees possess? What standard will the courts apply in reviewing these rights?
For those that think there was a violation of 8 U.S.C. 1231, what would like to see done? 8 U.S.C. 1231 is not a criminal statute, and there is on criminal sanction for its violation. It also does not create a cause of action against those that have violated the statute.
Well, you tell us. We’d already know this stuff if the detainees’ right to due process hadn’t been ignored.
The government has had two years (minimum) to prepare its cases against detainees. If nobody thought, “hey, somebody might decide that they are human beings and therefore entitled to face their accusers and so on,” then the Justice Department/USCIS/whoever is clearly incompetent, and won’t be able to get any convictions (or even prevail at these evidentiary hearings) anyway.
By contrast, the detainees might get a week, if they’re lucky. Their counsel has had little or no opportunity to conduct discovery, beyond interviewing their own clients.
If anyone is prejudiced by the timing of these “unprecendented proceedings” :rolleyes: , it will be the defendants.
They got nothin’. Even for the guys who are, in fact, guilty as charged (Hell, there must be at least a couple), the evidence is buggered six ways from Sunday. In no fair court could they obtain convictions with hearsay evidence and no witnesses worth the name.
How many detainees have been released without charges? What, then, are we to believe? That there was evidence strong enough to hold them in the first place, or there wasn’t? That new evidence surfaced? What?
The Guantanamo mess is an unholy clusterfuck with no just or worthy solution possible. An unknown number are actually guilty, an unknown number are innocent victims, and we have no good way to determine the difference. And God alone knows what horrors may await the people we release with a cloud of vague suspicion over their heads.
Godawmighty, what a mess!
80/775 = 10.3%
So roughly 90% of the “worst of the worst” are in fact innocents, held for years without charges or recourse.
With numbers like these, it’s hard to see how the supreme’s decision to force a little justice into Bush’s detention policy constitutes
“one of the worst decisions in the history of this country.”
Here’s an interesting site, which details all of the day-by-day info about Guantanamo and the detainees.
Using Wikipedia, 775 people have been put into Guantanamo, and 420 have been released without charges.
Upon editing, I see I’m too late.
This might be the place to point out that Justice Antonin “Fat Tony” Scalia is a lying sack o’ crap.
To wit:
Report: Scalia’s Claim That Released Gitmo Prisoners Have Killed Americans Is An ‘Urban Legend’
(Links, etc. available at site, too lazy to give direct plugs, but they’re there…)
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/21/gitmo-report-scalia/
(Godawmighty liberal site, tighty righties are not only advised to proceed "Shields Up’ but to divert all power to the shields and proceed on impulse power alone…)
I don’t know what rights they possess. Nobody does.
Your contention that the detainees’ right to due process was ignored is without basis in fact. The Supreme Court did not find that there was a violation of due process rights of the detainees.
There is no ruling that says these detainees have a right to face their accusers (or that they get criminal trials).
What evidentiary hearings (preliminary hearing) are you talking about? There are no evidentiary hearing scheduled.
The government may well be prepared to seek convictions, but not be prepared for a habeas procedure.
The defendants can request continuances, too.