Blue Spot

After Gitmo Ruling, What Next for Detainees? | Newsweek National News | Newsweek.com

The Supreme Court delivered a blow to the Bush administration's polarizing Guantánamo Bay policies Thursday, giving the roughly 300 foreign terror suspects being held there the right to challenge their detention through the U.S. civilian court system. In a 5-4 ruling on the jointly decided cases Boumediene v. Bush and Al-Odah v. The United States, the nation's highest court determined that the detainees have a constitutional right to habeas corpus despite their detention outside the borders of the United States. Further, the justices rejected the administration's argument that the reviews provided through the Military Commissions Act of 2006 and the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 were adequate substitutes for that right.

Also announced was the court's decision on the cases of Shawqui Omar and Mohammad Munaf, Americans detained on terrorism-related charges in Iraq who similarly argued for habeas corpus and challenged their pending transfer to Iraqi authorities. While the justices likewise upheld their habeas rights, they unanimously ruled that Iraq has jurisdiction over those within their borders.

Jonathan Hafetz: It's a vindication of the basic principle that government cannot deprive individuals of habeas corpus when it detains them merely by holding them outside the United States. It's a real vindication for the Guantánamo detainees to finally have their day in court and for the rule of law. It also has implications for the military commissions, because if the Constitution applies, then all the people who have been charged before the commissions are going to be able to contend that the commissions have to satisfy the Constitution, which they haven't been able to do so far.

Labels: Constitutional attacks, Gitmo, Supreme Court, Terrorism, Torture

The Associated Press: House panel subpoenas top Cheney aide WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Judiciary Committee voted Tuesday to compel a top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney to testify to the committee about the Bush administration's interrogation practices.

David Addington, Cheney's chief of staff, refused to testify without a subpoena. No date has been set for his appearance before Congress.

Addington is one of several lawyers believed to have played a key role in crafting the administration's interrogation policies shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, policies which some say amounted to torture.

John Yoo, the former Justice Department lawyer who wrote a now-repudiated memo allowing the harsh interrogations of military prisoners agreed late Monday to testify to Congress about those practices, averting a subpoena. Yoo is now a law professor at University of California-Berkeley.

Yoo's memo, dated March 14, 2003, outlines a legal justification for military interrogators to use harsh tactics against al-Qaida and Taliban detainees overseas — so long as they did not specifically intend to torture their captives.

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft, former Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith, and former Assistant Attorney General Daniel Levin have also agreed to give testimony at a future hearing. Former CIA Director George Tenet is still in negotiations with the committee, according to House Judiciary Committee spokeswoman Melanie Roussell.

Labels: Cheney, Constitutional attacks, Investigations, Surveilance, Torture

Justice Dept. opens criminal probe in CIA tapes case - Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department said today that it has opened a full investigation into possible criminal wrongdoing associated with the CIA's destruction of videotaped interrogations of terror suspects.

The disclosure last month that the CIA had destroyed two such tapes in 2005 -- which included footage of harsh interrogation methods -- touched off a political and legal firestorm. The Justice Department and the CIA Office of the Inspector General had been conducting a preliminary inquiry in the wake of those disclosures to see whether there was evidence of potential crimes, and whether a formal investigation should be pursued.

"The department's National Security division has recommended, and I have concluded, that there is a basis for initiating a criminal investigation of this matter, and I have taken steps to begin that investigation," Atty. Gen. Michael B. Mukasey said in a prepared statement, adding that he had appointed John Durham, the first assistant U.S. attorney in Connecticut, to oversee the investigation.

Labels: Intelligence, Investigations, Torture

Mukasey: Torture authority memo a 'mistake' - Politics - MSNBC.com

WASHINGTON - Attorney General-designate Michael Mukasey said Wednesday the president doesn't have the authority to use torture techniques against terrorism suspects, a stance not taken by predecessor Alberto Gonzales and considered key to the nominee's confirmation.

Mukasey repudiated a 2002 memo by then-Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee that said the president has the power to issue orders that violate the Geneva Conventions as well as international and U.S. laws prohibiting torture. The memo was later disavowed and overridden by an executive order on interrogation of terrorism suspects, which allowed harsh questioning but included a vaguely worded ban on cruel and inhuman treatment.

"The Bybee memo, to paraphrase a French diplomat, was worse than a sin, it was a mistake. It was unnecessary," Mukasey, 66, told the Senate Judiciary Committee under questioning by Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

Labels: Bush appointments, Senate, Torture

AG Gonzales gets hammered by Sen. Dick Durbin regarding the treatment of detainees at this Justice Dept. Oversight hearing on 7/24/07.

Labels: Alberto Gonzales, Investigations, Senate, Torture

Here's a scene from the classic movie The Battle of Algiers, about Algeria's fight for independence from France from 1954 to 1962.

Scary how this movie mirrors Iraq in many ways. After you watch this clip you have to ask yourself: Do we realy want to keep going down this road? Do we want to lose our moral authority and continue damaging our reputation around the world? It's funny how we didn't learn from the French mistakes in both Viet Nam or Algeria.

Labels: Comment, Terrorism, Torture

Harvard University Constitutional Law Professor, Laurence Tribe, discusses the "rule of law" and how Bush & AG Gonzales are damaging this country.

Labels: AG Gonzales, Alberto Gonzales, Civil Rights, Constitutional attacks, Domestic spying, Human Rights, Patriot Act, Signing Statements, Surveilance, Torture, US Attorney scandal

European Parliament members speak at a joint hearing on Capital Hill in front of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Intl Organizations & Human Rights & Europe Subcmte.

Labels: Europe, Human Rights, Torture, World news