There are only two choices: accept the whitewash of a report on conditions at Gitmo or allow the ICRC to publicly release its findings on conditions over the past seven years. Clearly, as I noted earlier this week, there has been a rush to improve conditions over the last two months in preparation for the review. Camp 4, the best of the camps, has actually been improving over the last six or eight months but even Camp 4 got many of its new perks in the last month. So we can either quietly accept the lie or make a public call for the release of findings by the only outside group allowed to monitor conditions (a group that was only allowed in if it kept what it saw confidential). Click on the title to read the Pentagon's review of itself.
Click here to read the Center for Constitutional Rights report on conditions.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
same old, same old...
OK, so I am not patient,but I will say that for the first month I kept telling myself, "it has only been two weeks" "it has only been three weeks" ....etc
But some of the things that are going on in the litigation (or I guess I should say, that are not going on) very clearly needed quick direction... and really are not all that difficult. I will start with the definition of "enemy combatant" the bushies defined it in such a way as just about anyone, anywhere could be deemed an enemy combatant and held forever without charge. There was a much more limited definition of enemy combatant prior to the bushies and the U.S. Supreme Court (in the Hamdi case) gave us a working definition during the bushie years...and yet the Obama administration is apparently unprepared to deal with this question. And I have to say it is not just the habeas counsel that are miffed, the judges don't understand it either. Were they not doing their homework?
Well five weeks in and they still can't get that definition together...this does not bode well....and it has also stalled all of the Court proceedings.
More on the lack of direction from the new administration later.
But some of the things that are going on in the litigation (or I guess I should say, that are not going on) very clearly needed quick direction... and really are not all that difficult. I will start with the definition of "enemy combatant" the bushies defined it in such a way as just about anyone, anywhere could be deemed an enemy combatant and held forever without charge. There was a much more limited definition of enemy combatant prior to the bushies and the U.S. Supreme Court (in the Hamdi case) gave us a working definition during the bushie years...and yet the Obama administration is apparently unprepared to deal with this question. And I have to say it is not just the habeas counsel that are miffed, the judges don't understand it either. Were they not doing their homework?
Well five weeks in and they still can't get that definition together...this does not bode well....and it has also stalled all of the Court proceedings.
More on the lack of direction from the new administration later.
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