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July 28, 2008
Judge John C. Coughenour, The Washington Post
The Right Place to Try Terrorism Cases
I have spent 27 years on the federal bench. In particular, my experience with the trial of Ahmed Ressam, the "millennium bomber," leads me to worry about Attorney General Michael Mukasey's comments last week, urging Congress to pass legislation outlining judicial procedures for reviewing Guantanamo detainees' habeas petitions. As constituted, U.S. courts are not only an adequate venue for trying terrorism suspects but are also a tremendous asset in combating terrorism. Congress risks a grave error in creating a parallel system of terrorism courts unmoored from the constitutional values that have served our country so well for so long. I have great sympathy for those charged with protecting our national security. That is an awesome responsibility. But this is not a choice between the existential threat of terrorism and the abstractions of a 200-year-old document. The choice is better framed as: Do we want our courts to be viewed as another tool in the "war on terrorism," or do we want them to stand as a bulwark against the corrupt ideology upon which terrorism feeds? READ MORE
July 22, 2008
The New York Times
Administration Calls for Action on Detainees
After a major setback in the Supreme Court last month, the Bush administration urged Congress on Monday to work out a plan for allowing prisoners in Guantánamo Bay to contest their incarcerations before federal judges — but without ever letting them set foot in the United States because of the “extraordinary risk” they pose. As part of the plan, the administration also wants Congress to “reaffirm,” nearly seven years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, that the United States “remains engaged in an armed conflict with al Qaeda” and other terrorist groups. The administration used Congress’s original affirmation of an armed conflict, three days after 9/11, not only to invade Afghanistan, but also to incarcerate enemy combatants without trial and to conduct wiretaps on Americans without a court warrant. READ MORE
July 22, 2008
Nan Aron, Alliance for Justice President
Attorney General Mukasey's Detainee Policy Speech: Rhetoric vs. Reality
"Attorney General Michael Mukasey's speech on the handling of detainees was nothing more than an attempt to conjure up a false sense of urgency to scare Congress into passing needless legislation. Enactment of new legislation now will serve only to bind the next president to the failed policies of the past. In Boumediene, the Supreme Court once again stood up to the president and his unconstitutional overreaches. In the two previous decisions, the Bush administration has convinced Congress to undercut the Supreme Court's decision. This time, Congress should reject the attorney general's call for a frenzied legislative response, and let the federal courts do their job." READ MORE
July 15, 2008
Reuters
Court Backs Bush on Detainee’s Imprisonment
President Bush can order the imprisonment of an al Qaeda suspect within the United States, but the detainee must be able to challenge his designation as an "enemy combatant," a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. The court, based in Richmond, Virginia, split by a 5-4 vote on both issues in deciding the case of a Qatari national, Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, who is the only foreign national held in the United States as an "enemy combatant." Marri has been held in a U.S. Navy brig in Charleston, South Carolina for more than five years without any charges being brought against him. READ MORE
July 7, 2008
The Washington Post
Debate Over Guantanamo's Fate Intensifies
The Bush administration is developing a long-range plan to empty the Guantanamo Bay military prison that could include asking Congress to spell out procedures for scores of suspected terrorists whom the government does not plan to bring to trial, administration officials and others familiar with high-level White House discussions on the issue said yesterday. Under one scenario being considered by President Bush's Cabinet, about 80 detainees would remain at the facility in Cuba to be tried by military commissions, and about 65 others would be turned over to their native countries, according to several sources familiar with the talks, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. But the focus of the intensifying debate is what to do with about 120 remaining prisoners, who are viewed by the administration as too dangerous to release but who are unlikely to be brought before military commissions because of a lack of evidence. Officials are considering whether to propose legislation in coming days that would establish legal procedures for such prisoners, who could be transferred to military or civilian prisons on the U.S. mainland, sources said. READ MORE