Constitutional Rights: Voices of reason

[struggle4progress]

EATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD

And then, from the depths of chaos and absurdity, a voice of reason ...

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday slammed the Bush administration's policy of locking up U.S. residents deemed "enemy combatants" indefinitely and without ever charging them. To say that the federal Military Commissions Act can strip a person of his or her constitutional rights "would have disastrous consequences for the Constitution -- and the country," read the majority opinion.

The case in question is that of Ali al-Marri, a U.S. resident suspected of being an enemy combatant on our soil. Al-Marri was initially arrested and charged with credit card fraud. Investigators said they later found evidence connecting him to al-Qaida, changing his status and placing him in solitary confinement at a South Carolina military detention center since June 2003. Al-Marri has been unable to challenge that evidence in court.

So, first a federal judge determined that President Bush's domestic spying program was unconstitutional. Then, last week, a military court prevented the prosecution of two Guantanamo prisoners because no one had bothered to identify them as unlawful enemy combatants. Now this. ~snip~

Back in 2004, when the Abu Ghraib scandal broke, Powell told international leaders at a conference in Jordan, "Watch America. Watch how we deal with this. Watch how America will do the right thing." Three years later and thousands of miles away, we, and about 380 guys in hoods at Guantanamo, are still waiting.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/319641_detained.html