The Heritage Foundation has long argued that the Department of Defense’s detention of combatants picked up on the battlefield was consistent with both the Geneva Conventions and U.S. law. The ACLU and other activists strongly disagreed with this position ad hoped the Obama Administration would reverse this policy.
Instead, the Obama Administration has chosen to continue the DoD’s prudent detainee policies. The New York Times reports:
The Obama administration has told a federal judge that military detainees in Afghanistan have no legal right to challenge their imprisonment there, embracing a key argument of former President Bush’s legal team.
In a two-sentence filing late Friday, the Justice Department said that the new administration had reviewed its position in a case brought by prisoners at the United States Air Force base at Bagram, just north of the Afghan capital. The Obama team determined that the Bush policy was correct: such prisoners cannot sue for their release.
I thought Obama ran against this Bush policy or am I confusing issues?
John, could it be that President Obama has come to his senses on one item?
Don't be fooled by Obama shell game. He released Binyam Mohamed over the weekend. Mohamed was an Al-Queda trained operative and was arrested in Pakistan. Earlier on Obama dropped all charges against the terrorist mastermind of USS Cole. That is as good as being freed. Slowly, he is releasing all the terrorists. You call that detainee sanity?
If any of those released terrorists re-entered the war and killed American soldiers, shouldn't we impeach Obama on dereliction of duty, if not aiding and abetting the enemy?
There can be no legal doubt that the Administration’s position on the issue of detention is correct as given in the siscussion. But it’s been my experience that often times a legal argument has not been well presented. Here, the petitioners argued that they were not participants on the field of combat and that could easily be true in this type of “war.” “Wars” are legally waged by sovereigns not by non-soldiers. I suspect here that the petitioners failed to introduce objective evidence that they were merely in the wrong place at the wrong time. If they were not engaged in or in support of combat they should be released.
We need to punish the guilty and praise and treat well the innocent.Murderers should be tried and put to death in a speedy manner. The innocent such as unborn babies should be protected.That shouldnt be hard to figure out.Whoso sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed.Gods word,the Holy Bible.On what the government should do.Lets wake up America! And return to common sence.