RAW STORY– In a stunning departure from his rhetoric on Guantánamo Bay
prison, President Barack Obama signaled Friday he will continue Bush
Administration policy with regard to detainees held at a US airbase in
Afghanistan, saying they have no right to challenge their detentions in US
courts — and denying them legal status altogether.
“This Court’s Order of January
22, 2009 invited the Government to inform the Court by February 20, 2009, whether it intends
to refine its position on whether the Court has jurisdiction over habeas
petitions filed by detainees held at the United
States military base in Bagram,
Afghanistan,” Acting
Assistant Obama Attorney General Michael Hertz wrote in a brief filed Friday.
“Having considered the matter, the Government adheres to its previously
articulated position.”
The move seems to be a reversal from Obama’s much-trumpeted announcement
to close the US prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba in January, in which he promised
to return the United States to the “moral high ground” and
“restore the standards of due process”
The US Supreme Court previously ruled that it was unconstitutional to hold
detainees at Guantánamo Bay without giving them access to US courts. Following
that ruling, more than 200 detainees filed suit in the District Court for the District
of Columbia.
The Obama Administration announcement would appear to fly in the face of that
ruling. The Court, while often supportive of previous Bush Administration
terror policies, has strongly resisted efforts to curb its role in the legal
aspect of US detention systems.
Bagram prison, where approximately 600 detainees are being held without charge
or even term limits on their stay, is located about 30 miles north of Kabul in a
converted Soviet Union base. The US
is mulling a $60 million plan to expand the facility, which would double its
current size.
Continue reading about Obama Continuing Bush’s Policy on Detainees.
Photo by US Army Flickr
© RAW STORY, 2009