Bush administration: 'No legal rights' for detainees

In this June 27, 2006 file photo, reviewed by U.S. military officials, a detainee, name, nationality, and facial identification not permitted, sits with a drink in a styrofoam cup as other detainees sit near him, within the grounds of Camp Delta military-run prison, at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, Cuba. Guantanamo Bay prisoners could soon lose access to their lawyers _ one of their only contacts with the outside world _ because of a new law that eliminates their right to challenge their detention in civilian courts, the lawyers fear. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, FILE)

Well, this isn't too surprising. This is from USA Today:

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is taking a hard line on whether prisoners at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have a right to lawyers to help them file lawsuits challenging their detentions.

In court papers filed during the past two weeks, the Justice Department has insisted that the detainees have "no legal rights," especially the right to counsel.

But the administration says that it will grant defense lawyers access to detainees if the lawyers consent to restrictions that include undergoing body searches and allowing the military to monitor their conversations with their clients.

The legal arguments made by both sides are reminiscent of those they have made for more than two years as they argued whether President Bush can hold "enemy combatants" without charges or access to court for as long as the war on terrorism lasts.

In June, the Supreme Court ruled that the president's war powers are not "a blank check." The court said that a U.S. citizen held in a Navy brig in South Carolina and nearly 600 suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives held in Cuba have a right to contest their detentions.

Justice Department lawyers accuse the detainees' attorneys of stretching the Supreme Court's ruling "way out of proportion." They say the Supreme Court decided only whether federal courts have authority to review challenges by the detainees and did not address whether captives have a right to lawyers.

Attorneys for the detainees accuse the administration of doing an end-run around the Supreme Court. "One would never know that this case had just been to the Supreme Court of the United States, where the government made — and lost — virtually the same arguments it now recycles here," they wrote.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington plans to hear arguments Monday on the dispute.

So now we know the Bush administration's case for the Gitmo detainees--they have no rights! They have no rights for a trial. They practically have no rights for an attorney, since the Bush administration is willing to grant the detainees an attorney but only on the condition that the administration can review the notes and conversations between the detainee and attorney. This is just sickening:

[The] administration says that it will grant the lawyers access to their clients if they pass and pay for background checks for "secret" security clearances, which the defense lawyers need to review classified documents pertaining to their clients.

Under rules created by the Pentagon, the military will search lawyers before and after they meet with their clients, review any notes that attorneys take and record conversations between lawyers and some of the detainees.

Justice Department lawyers say restrictions are needed to protect national security. But the detainees' lawyers say the policy is an assault on the attorney-client privilege and will "chill" their relationships with the captives.

Talk about a sham here--this is supposed to protect us in the war on terror? This is outright authoritarianism by the Bush White House--lawyers must pass and pay for background checks for security clearances, be subjected to searches (Strip searches perhaps?), and that the state can review any notes and record conversations between the attorneys and their clients? This is not in the interest of fighting terrorism--this is a combination of the Bush administration's CYA for the illegal imprisoning and torturing of terror suspects without any legal recourse, and then trying to impose police-state powers within the United States, after the fact. This has nothing to do with terrorism. If these suspects are guilty of terrorism, then put the terror suspects on a public trial, show us all the evidence of their guilt or innocence--and that includes the so-called secret evidence that the Bush White House refuses to divulge due to "national security," and then have the subjects judged according to the evidence. However, the real reason the Bush administration refuses to even allow these detainees any legal rights, is probably because these detainees were picked up by U.S. forces in the wrong place at the wrong time, or that a number of these suspected terrorists were sold to the U.S. by the Afghan warlords, or Pakistani tribesmen, for cash. And now after four years of captivity, and possibly torture, the Bush administration is worried that the release of these suspects may cause them to turn to terrorism because of their incarceration.

This is another complete failure of the Bush administration's extremism has made a bad situation of fighting against terrorism even worst. It is never-ending.