Misblog

Originally Published October 03, 2006; Last Updated and Republished August 21, 2009:

Lawyers, in a direct challenge to the habeas corpus provision of the Military Commissions Act 2006 (aka "In Torture We Trust Act 2006" or "America the Torturer Act 2006"), have filed lawsuits on behalf of detainees being held at Bagram Air Base in Parvan, Afghanistan. This lawsuit is a direct challenge to the habeas corpus section of this disastrous piece legislation, even before Bush King Bush the Idiot has signed it!

Abu Ghraib

Judge Leon

The Washington Post is reporting that the case has been assigned to Judge Richard J. Leon. This is the federal judge that wrote in Khalid v Bush, another detainee habeas corpus case, on January 21, 2005: "Thus, until Congress and the President act further, there is similarly no viable legal theory under international law by which a court could issue a writ [of habeas corpus]"

In addition to the U.S. Constitution and Rasul v Bush he now has Hamdan v Rumsfeld, the "In Torture We Trust Act 2006" and a detainee location (Bagram detainees v Guantanamo detainees) closer to the actual fighting.

Link to Misblog's Who Will Stop The Torture

Web:

• UPDATED 08/21/2009 ProPublica, More at Stake in Gitmo Court Orders Than Detainees’ Fates
• UPDATED 07/24/2009 Publica, Their Own Private Guantánamo
  • Publica, An Examination of 31 Gitmo Detainee Lawsuits

• UPDATED 06/23/2009 Al Jazeera En, US court frees Guantanamo prisoner .

  "...There is no evidence - from either side - as to why he [Abd Al Rahim Abdul Rassak] suddenly was suspected by al-Qaeda leaders of spying and was tortured for months into giving a false confession,...It is highly unlikely that by that point in time al-Qaeda [or the Taliban] had any trust or confidence in him. Surely extreme treatment of that nature evinces a total evisceration of whatever relationship might have existed!"--Al Jazeera quoting Judge Leon--

  Judge Leon's atypical rebuke of our government actually points to a more fundamental problem and support for ensuring our intelligence agencies are not without informed, intensive, independent, and transparent oversight.

  Without informed, intensive, independent, and transparent oversight it's very easy for our intelligence community to get trapped in their own underwear—famous American spy James Jesus Angleton called it getting lost in a wilderness of mirrors.

• UPDATED 04/02/2009 NYT, Detention at Afghan Base Is Subject to U.S. Courts.

  • UPDATED 04/14/2009 Reuters, Guantanamo captive phones TV office, claims abuse. Mr. President, what's to do but buy the plane ticket and fly detainee, under supervision, to Saudi Arabia or Chad?

    If a country will not take a detainee(s) and they are not charged with any crime then they must be released into the United States—unlawful, extra-judicial, unconstitutional detention is not an option.

    Before the cowboys perform another mindless extra-constitutional snatch and grab ask what Article III judge (or other country's customary, recognized and lawful equivalent authority) they'll be presenting the person to.

  • UPDATED 04/11/2009 Obama sticks to Bush detainee policy
• UPDATED 01/14/2009 BBC, US must free Guantanamo detainee, orders Judge Leon.
• UPDATED 11/20/2008 NYT, Judge [Leon] Orders Five Detainees Freed From Guantánamo. The Guantánamo release drips begin to flow.¹

• UPDATED 07/11/2008 Reuters, Judge [Leon] wants to decide Guantanamo cases this year.

  "This is going to be moved as fast as possible," U.S. District Judge Richard Leon told lawyers for the prisoners and the U.S. Justice Department. "These men have waited long enough to get a decision."--Reuters--

• Center for Constitutional Rights - Challenges to "America the Torturer Act 2006"
• Congressional Research Report for Congress Enemy Combatant Detainees: Habeas Corpus Challenges in Federal Court

Blog:

• Jurist - Afghan Detainees Launch Challenge

-----notes-----

1. China's Emperor Kuang-wu issued the following edict (circa CE 31):

"Those officials and people who, during [Emperor] Mang Wang's time, [CE 9 - 23] were seized and became slaves not in accordance with the former laws, are all freed and made commoners."--C. Martin Wilbur, Slavery In China..., 1968--

The near universally hated, despised, and subsequently killed Mang Wang tried to confiscate the Chinese people's money by forcing them to exchange heavier five-chu metal coins for lighter ones—pocketing the difference! (He also tried to restrict and limit the use of slaves which pissed-off China's elite, second only to the government in number of slaves owned.)

The clever Chinese, instead of exchanging their heavy coins began melting them and making (counterfeited) the lighter coins, thereby retaining the difference for themselves!

Needless to say the emperor wasn't happy, so he began arbitrarily arresting, executing, jailing, and enslaving entire families and neighborhoods (a neighborhood typically had five or so families) by the thousands!

Kuang-wu wisely pardoned those still alive after the unbelievably brutal, incompetent, and murderous reign of Emperor Mang Wang (millions of Chinese perished during his reign).