Go Directly To Gitmo, Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect Any Rights

We're fighting for freedom, we're fighting for democracy, etc etc...

AP: Administration: Detainees have no rights

The Bush administration said Monday that Guantanamo Bay prisoners have no right to challenge their detentions in civilian courts and that lawsuits by hundreds of detainees should be dismissed...

...Human rights groups and attorneys for the detainees say the [Military Commissions Act] is unconstitutional. Prisoners normally have the right to challenge their imprisonment...

Not in George W. Bush's America. Here he is the sole decider of whether or not you are a terrorist. Guilty until proven innocent. If we ever present you an opportunity to prove it.

The most Orwellian part?

The Justice Department said Monday that the detainees have no constitutional rights because they are being held overseas. Giving military detainees access to civilian courts "would severely impair the military's ability to defend this country," government attorneys wrote.

Translation: 'If we adhere to the ideals we are supposedly fighting for, it'll make us less safe... somehow.'

Meanwhile, Glenn Greenwald has the latest in a series of tales of innocent men snatched up by the government and disappeared down W's rabbit hole... Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri was in the United States legally on a student visa and lived in Peoria with his wife and five children. Here is what happened to him-

In December, 2001 he was detained as a "material witness" to suspected acts of terrorism and ultimately charged with various terrorism-related offenses, mostly relating to false statements the FBI claimed he made as part of its 9/11 investigation. Al-Marri vehemently denied the charges, and after lengthy pre-trial proceedings, his trial on those charges was scheduled to begin on July 21, 2003.

But his trial never took place, because in June, 2003 -- one month before the scheduled trial -- President Bush declared him to be an "enemy combatant." As a result, the Justice Department told the court it wanted to turn him over to the U.S. military, and thus asked the court to dismiss the criminal charges against him, and the court did so (the dismissal was "with prejudice," meaning he can't be tried ever again on those charges). Thus, right before his trial, the Bush administration simply removed Al-Marri from the jurisdiction of the judicial system -- based solely on the unilateral order of the President -- and thus prevented him from contesting the charges against him.

Instead, the administration immediately transferred al-Marri to a military prison in South Carolina (where the administration brings its "enemy combatants" in order to ensure that the executive-power-friendly 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has jurisdiction over all such cases). Al-Marri was given the "Padilla Treatment" -- kept in solitary confinement, denied all contact with the outside world, including even his own attorneys, not charged with any crimes, and given no opportunity to prove his innocence. Instead, the Bush administration simply asserted the right to detain him indefinitely without so much as charging him with anything.

Feel proud?

I hope the Democratic congress will have the courage to take on these immoral, illegal, and unconstitutional practices without fear of being labeled unpatriotic or weak on terrorism. As I said on the warrantless wiretapping issue, if we are to accept that we are involved in a struggle against global terrorism of an indeterminate length (and by definition, there is no end to such an ill-defined struggle), then it is doubly important that we not compromise our laws, values, and Constitution for some illusionary expediency in fighting it. Our soldiers aren't dying so George W. Bush can act like a law unto himself.

[PS- The Washington Post writes about two memos the Democrats might want to ask about.]