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The dramatic Supreme Court decision
last month declaring the Bush administration's Guantanamo military
tribunals scheme to be lawless and unconstitutional, is a landmark
ruling that strikes a powerful blow for liberty. Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
represents our democracy at its best, with a judicial branch
taking its constitutional role seriously and boldly examining
what our chief executive's actions. There could be not have been
a happier day for a constitutional and human rights lawyer like
myself.
But my joy in finally getting
this decision was tempered by the knowledge that it came a few
days late. Just two weeks earlier, three of the Guantanamo detainees
that we were representing at the Center for Constitutional Rights
committed suicide, despairing that they would ever be released
from their horrific and illegal confinement. Making that tragic
incident all the more horrible and personally wrenching for me,
since one of the victims was my own client--is knowing that he
had actually been scheduled to be released three days hence.
Because of the wall of secrecy and inaccessibility the government
has illegally erected around the detainees, even with the information
recently released via a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit we
could not identify him and get word to him about his impending
release in time.
As the lead habeas attorney
for 300 of the Guantanamo detainees for CCR, the organization
that brought the original challenge to the unlawful detention
of hundreds of men in Guantánamo Bay, I am intimately
aware of the wretched conditions under which they have been living,
and of the unconstitutional lengths to which this administration
has gone to keep them beyond court jurisdiction. In our original
case, Rasul v. Bush, the High Court, upholding a tradition of
more than 800 years' standing, said every person gets to challenge
the King's decision to place him or her in the dungeon, and the
King must provide a legally cognizable reason. When that first
ruling came down on June 28, 2004, I assumed our system of checks
and balances was working well.
But I was wrong.
Lawyers for the detainees still
had to endure two years of Administration refusal to comply with
the court's decision, with the Justice Department attorneys insisting
people might have the right to go to court but once there they
have no protections to be enforced. Now we know this obscene
delaying tactic for what it has been from the start: a blatant
trampling on the Constitution by the President.
But this struggle wasn't simply
an arcane legal argument between lawyers. The two long years
it took for us to get back to the Supreme Court took their toll
on the Guantánamo prisoners. There have been many suicide
attempts, and finally three lives were lost in their quest for
justice from a country that once was a beacon of liberty. The
Supreme Court's forceful decision in June cannot bring back the
lives of those men, at least one of whom--my client-- was known
to be innocent of any crime. Nor can it give back the years--five
in many cases--that have been stolen from the Guantanamo detainees,
some of who were children when they were snatched from their
countries by American forces, and most of whom even military
officials admit are not guilty of anything.
The Bush Administration has
thumbed its nose at the Constitution for too long at Guantanamo,
and at other secret detention facilities around the globe. This
issue of denying basic justice to wartime captives is not simply
a matter of misinterpreting the law--it is a willful affront
to the rule of law here in America, and to international law.
It is also a stain on the honor of this nation.
The blood of three detainees
who, despairing of receiving justice, killed themselves, is on
the hands of this administration. It is wonderful that President
Bush's abuse of power in this case has been slapped down by the
Supreme Court, but more is called for. This abuse of power and
willful violation of the rule of law and of the Geneva Conventions
call for his impeachment.
Barbara Olshansky is an attorney with the Center for
Constitutional Right and the lead habeas counsel for 300 of the
detainees at Guantanamo Bay. She is co-author, with Dave Lindorff,
of "The
Case for Impeachment" (St. Martin's Press, May 2006).
Barbara and Dave will be discussing
the book at Robin's Books, 108 s. 13th Street, Philadelphia at
7 pm on Wednesday, Aug 2. The event is being taped for broadcast
by C-Span's Books-TV program.
Now
Available
from CounterPunch Books!
The Case
Against Israel
By Michael Neumann
CounterPunch
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