Indefinite Detention at Gitmo Criticized as "Legal Nihilism"

[Echo In Light]

Indefinite Detention at Gitmo Criticized as "Legal Nihilism"
by William Fisher

NEW YORK - A new U.S. government report is recommending that 48 men currently detained at Guantanamo Bay should be held indefinitely without trial because "for many of the detainees, there are no witnesses who are available to testify in any proceeding against them".

But authorities who follow the tortuous fortunes of Guantanamo say there is another reason: The evidence against them has been produced by confessions obtained through torture and would not be admissible in either a civilian or military court.

The report comes from the Guantánamo Review Task Force, appointed by President Barack Obama during his first week in office to review and assess each detainee's case to determine his fate.

The report found that the large majority of detainees were low-level fighters who were not involved in plots against the United States. It recommends that 126 of the detainees still held at Guantánamo be transferred to their home countries or a third country, that 36 be prosecuted in federal courts or military commissions, and that 48 of the detainees be held indefinitely without charge or trial.

Constitutional law experts and civil liberties advocates have consistently maintained that the U.S. system of justice leaves no place for people who are deemed "impossible to try but too dangerous to release."

[Xipe Totec]

1. More proof that the constitution is nothing more than a fig leaf

covering the pudenda of a fascist state.

[Mari333]

3. [phone]

[indepat]

11. But I heard that the Constitution is just a blankety-blank piece of paper

:shrug:

[mmonk]

2. Yes, we have no place for people who are deemed

"impossible to try but too dangerous to release." because the Constitution has no room for unconstitutional provisions or concepts. This is due to the fact there is no such concept in free nations predicated on the rule of law.

[zipplewrath]

4. A constitutional law professor

one would think that a constitutional law professor would never attempt such a thing.

[mmonk]

6. The lure of politics and pull of perceptions are destroyers of legal precepts.

[Solly Mack]

5. K&R

[Echo In Light]

7. Bump

[Echo In Light]

8. Bump

[leftstreet]

9. K&R

What an interesting article!

[Echo In Light]

10. Bump