World-News

Slate
by Dahlia Lithwick

05/01/07

Nobody seems to mind all that much when the Bush administration nibbles away at the rights of the almost 400 prisoners still being held at Guantanamo Bay. Maybe we figure that if they didn’t deserve the really important rights we’ve taken away (to speedy trials, say, or to due process in challenging their detentions), they can’t possibly merit the lesser ones (such as the right to hunger strike or the right to an attorney). Last fall, through the Military Commissions Act, Congress stripped everyone at Gitmo of the right to petition for habeas corpus relief in the federal courts, barred them from invoking the Geneva Conventions in federal court, and allowed secret evidence to be used against them at trial. Now, using an elegantly Zenlike circular argument, the administration contends that since they have no real procedural rights anymore, they probably won’t be needing their funny little lawyers to enforce them...

https://www.slate.com/id/2165348/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



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