IPA - End of Habeas Corpus?

courtesy Institute for Public Accuracy

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Institute for Public Accuracy
915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C . 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org
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PM Monday, September 18, 2006

End of Habeas Corpus?

While the Warner-Graham-McCain bill has gotten substantial attention
with regards to its Geneva conventions provisions, the Center for
Constitutional Rights has criticized both the bill and the
administration's proposal as gutting habeas corpus.

McCain and Graham were questioned separately about this yesterday, by
Sam Husseini of the Institute for Public Accuracy, as they left the
studios of Sunday morning talk shows in Washington. McCain replied
that he was not familiar with those provisions of the legislation.

When Graham was asked if the bill, as the Center for Constitutional
Rights has charged, "would prevent anyone taken into U.S. custody --
anywhere in the world, past, present or future, innocent or not --
from ever having their case heard in a court of law," the South
Carolina senator replied: "That is a complete false statement."

Graham added: "Every person tried as a war criminal will now be able
to appeal their conviction if there is one through our federal court
system. ... Everywhere we hold someone there are rules in place to
appeal their status as enemy combatants."

For video and transcript of the remarks by McCain and Graham, see:
< http://www.husseini.org/content/2006/09/questioning_mcc.html >.

MICHAEL RATNER, via Mahdis Keshavarz, mahdis@riptideonline.com ,
http://ccr-ny.org
President of the Center for Constitutional Rights, Ratner said
today: "The Warner-Graham-McCain bill denies habeas corpus to all
aliens held outside the United States and currently in U.S. custody.
And 'outside' includes Guantanamo.
"However in the case of those who have been found to be unlawful
enemy combatants by Combatant Status Review Tribunal (combatant
status review panels used at Guantanamo) it gives a meaningless court
of appeals 'review' -- a review that examines whether or not the U.S.
complied with its own procedures -- but not ... a real court hearing
with factual development as habeas corpus requires.
"For those aliens detained outside the U.S. that have not had
CSRT hearings -- the high majority -- in facilities like Bagram in
Afghanistan, the Warner bill simply abolished habeas or any other
court review.
"The consequences are breathtaking. The U.S. can pick up any
alien, even a legal permanent resident in the U.S., and take them to
an off-shore prison and hold them forever without any kind of court
hearing.
"While all the attention on this legislation has focused on
Geneva conventions and military commissions, the Warner alternative,
like the administration bill, authorizes lifelong detention without
habeas or any genuine review whatsoever."

P. SABIN WILLETT, sabin.willett@bingham.com
Willett is a partner at the law firm Bingham McCutchen. One of
his clients, Abu Bakker Qassim, who was imprisoned at Guantanamo from
2002 to May 2006, had an oped in the New York Times on Sunday; see:
< http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/09/18/opinion/edqassim.php >.
Willett said today: "Sen. Graham refers to a provision in the
Senate bill that gives the court of appeals a review of 'enemy
combatant' findings made by the military's Combatant Status Review
Tribunals. But the devil is in the details. The Senate bill limits
the court's review to whether the CSRT [has] followed its own
rules. ... The irony of the new bill is that it would give more
rights to Khaled Sheikh Muhammed, who stands accused of murdering
nearly 3,000, than to men who've never been charged, and never will
be charged, with anything.
"Judge Hens Green, the only judge to have looked closely at these
CSRTs, roundly condemned them as arbitrary more than a year ago. The
CSRTs branded as 'enemy combatant' not just enemy soldiers taken on
the battlefield, but all kinds of people who were never soldiers at
all. They based their findings on secret evidence and reached
contradictory and inexplicable results."

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167




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