Colonialism... at Gitmo

Here's great piece from Salon: "A legal black hole". (I should also note that it's good to see Salon get a financial boost from readers who are more prosperous that I... it would be sad to see Salon go.) The piece tells the story of a recent Supreme Court brief filed by military lawyers that accuses the Bush administration of doing much of what the British troops under King George did here in the New World before we secured our independence... but at Guant�namo Bay, Cuba (a/k/a, "Gitmo")

A few choice quotes:

Unlike earlier wars, the struggle against terrorism is potentially never-ending. The Constitution cannot countenance an open-ended Presidential power, with no civilian review whatsoever, to try anyone the President deems subject to a military tribunal, whose rules and judges have been selected by the prosecuting authority itself.

[...]

Concerns that the Executive has usurped the function of the Judiciary are at their height when the Executive seeks to deny access to a right as fundamental as habeas corpus. This right is part of our Constitution's "bulwark" against "tyranny" ... and essential to the adversarial system.

Posted by joebeone at Enero 18, 2004 11:14 AM