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| Six Algerian Guantanamo inmates to challenge imprisonment |
| 2008-11-05 |
| Six Algerians detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for the last seven years are to become on Thursday the first prisoners to challenge their continued imprisonment in a US federal court. The prison at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, where some 800 men classified as "enemy combatants" have been held without trial, is a central piece of outgoing US President George W. Bush's "war on terror." After years of legal wrangling, the US Supreme Court in June granted Guantanamo detainees access to the civil court system and the right to file Habeas Corpus cases challenging their detention. The case of the Algerians is the first of a series of such cases. The vast majority of detainees, whom the US has described as "the worst of the worst," have been quietly released without charge. "It is not a trial over these men being guilty or innocent, it is only a trial about whether the president can say legally that based on these facts and this law, 'I have a basis for holding these men,'" defense lawyer Robert Kirsch told AFP. Some 250 prisoners remain in the military base, and all of them have started Habeas Corpus challenges. The prisoners have each passed before Combatant Status Review Tribunals where they were classified as enemy combatants, a ruling that justifies their continued detention under Bush administration guidelines. Of the 250, only 20 have been charged and must stand trial in front of a military tribunal for "war crimes." In October, a federal judge ordered a group of 17 Chinese Muslim Uighurs to be released in the United States after they were no longer considered enemy combatants. The decision is being appealed. The Algerians, who also hold Bosnian nationality, were arrested in Bosnia following a request from the US Embassy in Sarajevo, according to their attorneys. "Bosnia is terrified" of the United States, according to Stephen Oleskey, a lawyer for the Algerians, who noted that US officials had command of UN forces in Bosnia at the time. "In a speech President Bush gave in January 2002, he said that the Americans had broken a terrorist cell that was going to attack the American Embassy," added Kirsch. Algerian police investigated the men for three months without finding any evidence before US officials asked that they be detained. Then in October 2008 the government "dropped the claims and suddenly another theory is coming out," he said. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #3 Release them all in Hyde Park, Chicago. |
| Posted by: ed 2008-11-05 14:42 |
| #2 IF W were to load all these guys on a plane and land in the middle of the ME Nowheresville, and kick them out, on, say Jan 19, then it would be O's problem. or not. |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2008-11-05 14:26 |
| #1 The first of many challenges to the Obama presidency, and a good indicator of how he will act in the "War on Terror". |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2008-11-05 13:42 |