Specter to hold hearings on Gitmo prisoners' rights

[Chauga]

June 15, 2005
By Maeve Reston
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette National Bureau


As lawmakers of both parties continue to question whether the government should close the U.S. military's Guantanamo Bay detention center after reports of prisoner mistreatment, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter has called hearings today to clarify the legal rights of those prisoners.

Legal scholars have argued for months over whether detainees at the Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba should receive the protections afforded to prisoners of war or be classified as "enemy combatants," as the Bush administration has argued, which drastically limits their rights.

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Guantanamo Bay prisoners can challenge their detainment in U.S. courts.

The government responded by setting up military commissions to review the cases. But in November, a U.S. district judge ruled that the new system did not adequately protect the rights of one of the first prisoners moving through the system -- Salim Ahmed Hamdan, an alleged member of the al-Qaida terror network.



http://www.postgazette.com/pg/05166/521660.stm

[chalky]

1. Why does the phrase "kangaroo court" suddenly come to mind?

Why do I have this fear that the long arm of Sessenbastard will somehow make itself felt all the way over there in the Senate?

And why do I have this fear that this hearing will somehow bleed over into Thursday and completely eclipse Conyers' hearing?

Why, dear lord, why?

[Supersedeas]

4. more than three years of detention and Congress just now wants to hold

hearings???

[LightningFlash]

2. Sensenbrenner can't even attend senate meetings.

He's in the house, the legislative side and has no right in senate proceedings.

[chalky]

3. Logic says this is so.

But my gut is saying that his ghost will be haunting the proceedings.

[consuming]

5. Free them