Washington Times
by Nat Hentoff

11/28/05

The self-styled 'world's greatest deliberative body,' the U.S. Senate, voted 84 to 14 on Nov. 15 on an 'improved' Sen. Lindsey Graham amendment to the Defense Department authorization bill that prevents prisoners at Guantanamo from filing habeas corpus petitions to our federal courts regarding their conditions of confinement. This includes complaints of abuses and alleged torture from 'enhanced' interrogations. In its present form, this Graham amendment was co-sponsored by Carl Levin, Michigan Democrat, and Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican. Yet, the Supreme Court ruled in Rasul et al v. Bush (2004) that Guantanamo detainees do have due process rights to challenge, under habeas corpus, the legality of their imprisonment. That decision led to lawyers going to Guantanamo Bay, telling us what's going on and then filing habeas corpus petitions in federal district courts in Washington. The Graham-Levin-Kyl amendment cuts off that judicial route except in a very limited form that does not include the actual conditions under which the prisoners are being held...

http://tinyurl.com/8r4s2


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp