More news from Git-Mo

The latest story on Guantanamo from The New York Times (snip and paste, full story here with free subscription http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/08/na...ed=2&oref=regi)

The (Supreme) court ruled 6 to 3 in June that detainees had a right to challenge their detentions in federal court, saying that even though the base is outside the sovereign territory of the United States, federal judges have jurisdiction to consider petitions for writs of habeas corpus from those who argue that they are being unlawfully held.

The hearings here have come under heavy criticism ... For one thing, the detainees are left to argue their cases for themselves, without assistance from lawyers.

The hearings, formally called combatant status review tribunals, were hurriedly devised and put into place just weeks after the Supreme Court's ruling. The administration... told a federal court in Washington last week that the tribunals more than satisfy the Supreme Court ruling. The government argued that because of the tribunals, federal judges should reject the dozens of petitions they have received from defense lawyers asking them to intervene.

Critics have complained that the tribunals are fatally flawed, not only because the detainees do not have lawyers but because they are generally hampered in disputing any charges because they are not allowed to see most of the evidence against them because it is classified.

Detainees at all the hearings are given an unclassified summary of the charges, but the evidence to support the most serious accusations is classified and is considered in a closed session after prisoners are taken back to their cells.

One official said it was apparent from the unconvincing explanations of many detainees as to why they had been carrying a gun or were at a battle site that they were indeed enemy combatants.

The administration has asserted that the Guantánamo detainees are not entitled to the prisoner-of-war protections of the Geneva Conventions as they do not meet the criteria of regular soldiers. International lawyers have criticized the United States, saying that the Geneva Conventions require hearings to determine whether they can be deemed other than P.O.W.'s.

So, on the one hand these prisoners really ARE enemy combatants, but, really, they're not. HUH? George Orwell would have been knocked out by this wonderful example of administration double speak. Even the vilest war criminals at the Nuremberg trials were allowed to have lawyers, confront their accusers and hear the evidence against them. But I guess the US is above all that because we're making the world safe for Democracy. Right.