RAW STORY– In a brief filed Thursday evening, Obama Justice Department lawyers extended
many of the same arguments made by Bush attorneys — that top government
officials have qualified immunity from prosecution and that Guantanamo
detainees do not have constitutional rights to due process.
The Department of Justice has asserted that a Supreme Court ruling reaffirming
the rights of Guantanamo detainees to habeas corpus does not apply to
plaintiffs in a case against former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
because the plaintiffs were released from prison four years prior to the
Supreme Court’s decision.
“It is fair to say that the current brief that is filed by the new
administration supports a lot of the arguments that were made by the previous
administration,” said Kate Toomey, an attorney with Baach Robinson &
Lewis who is representing the former detainees in an interview with RAW STORY.
“They continue to assert that torture was in the scope of employment and
could be reasonably expected. They continue to assert that these [top
officials] be entitled to immunity. They also continue to argue that detainees
at Guantanamo don’t have
constitutional rights.”
The brief was filed
as part of the Rasul v. Rumsfeld lawsuit of four former detainees, who include
the “Tipton Three,” and are seeking damages for their detention and
reported torture at Guantanamo Bay
against Rumsfeld, the Chairmen of the Joint Chief of Staffs and other top
military officials. The suit charges them with violations of the Fifth and
Eighth Amendments, the Alien Tort Statute, the Geneva Conventions and the
Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The plaintiffs are individually each seeking
$10 million in damages.
The men were held for more than two years at Guantanamo
where they were reportedly subjected to regular beatings, death threats, sleep
deprivation, extreme temperatures, forced nakedness, interrogations at gun
point and religious and racial harassment. They were never charged with any
crime. The men were released in March 2004 and returned to their home country
of Britain.
The plaintiffs are also being represented by the Center for Constitutional
Rights, which has a full background of the case, including all court documents here.
Read full story about Obama Defending Rumsfeld in Torture Case.
© RAW STORY 2009
