Operation American Freedom continues
In what was reported to be heavy fighting, Supreme Court storm troops held
off ACLU and coalition forces yesterday.
The Supreme Court on Monday turned away a preliminary challenge to the
government's expanded powers to wiretap and search people who are suspected
of having links to foreign terrorists.
The justices refused to allow the American Civil Liberties Union to appeal
on behalf of Arab Americans and others who believe they may be being
secretly monitored.
Monday's dismissal leaves open a possible future legal challenge brought by
someone who says he was wrongly wiretapped and had his house searched.
But the move nonetheless left ACLU lawyers disappointed and frustrated.
"This is a strange situation where you have a broad ruling and no one can
appeal it," said Ann Beesonan ACLU lawyer who represented the American-Arab
Anti-Discrimination Committee.
[:: LINK :: by melior . 11:26 AM :: Send :: Comments? ::]
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Update: Gitmo and the Geneva Conventions
[The U.S.] prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, in Cuba, where 641 men (nine of
whom are British citizens) are held, breaches no fewer than 15 articles of
the third convention. The US government broke the first of these (article
13) as soon as the prisoners arrived, by displaying them, just as the
Iraqis have done, on television. In this case, however, they were not
encouraged to address the cameras. They were kneeling on the ground, hands
tied behind their backs, wearing blacked-out goggles and earphones. In
breach of article 18, they had been stripped of their own clothes and
deprived of their possessions. They were then interned in a penitentiary
(against article 22), where they were denied proper mess facilities (26),
canteens (28), religious premises (34), opportunities for physical exercise
(38), access to the text of the convention (41), freedom to write to their
families (70 and 71) and parcels of food and books (72).
They were not "released and repatriated without delay after the cessation
of active hostilities" (118), because, the US authorities say, their
interrogation might, one day, reveal interesting information about
al-Qaida. Article 17 rules that captives are obliged to give only their
name, rank, number and date of birth. No "coercion may be inflicted on
prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatever". In
the hope of breaking them, however, the authorities have confined them to
solitary cells and subjected them to what is now known as "torture lite":
sleep deprivation and constant exposure to bright light. Unsurprisingly,
several of the prisoners have sought to kill themselves, by smashing their
heads against the walls or trying to slash their wrists with plastic cutlery.
http://www.libertythink.com/
