No Habeas Rights For Obama Detainees - Bush Right Again

Obama Stays the Course on Bagram The Justice Department today said it would adhere to the Bush administration's position that detainees imprisoned at a U.S. air base in Afghanistan have no right to challenge their confinement in U.S. courts. Last month, U.S. District Judge John Bates gave the new administration an opportunity to refine its position in cases involving four detainees incarcerated at the Bagram prison, located on a converted Soviet base about 30 miles north of Kabul. They are seeking the same rights as prisoners held at the naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba -- more than 200 of whom are challenging their detention in habeas proceedings in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Acting Assistant Attorney General Michael Hertz filed the government's response today. Here it is, in full: "This Court’s Order of January 22, 2009 invited the Government to inform the Court by February 20, 2009, whether it intends to refine its position on whether the Court has jurisdiction over habeas petitions filed by detainees held at the United States military base in Bagram, Afghanistan. Having considered the matter, the Government adheres to its previously articulated position." The approximately 650 prisoners in the hardscrabble Bagram prison are being held there indefinitely and without charge. The prison is closed to journalists and human rights activists, and while it has long been dubbed "the other Guantánamo," Bagram detainees lack the same privileges, such as regular access to lawyers. While the Guantánamo population has dwindled to about 245, Bagram has added more than 100 prisoners since 2005, according to the Defense Department. President Obama has ordered a task force led by the attorney general and the defense secretary to review overall policy on detainees. A report is due in six months. A Justice Department spokesman declined to speculate on whether the government's position may change following the review. [Continue reading]

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