Posted on 06/29/2006 7:11:53 AM PDT by pabianice
Edited on 06/29/2006 7:41:43 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Breaking...
Update:
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that President Bush overstepped his authority in ordering military war crimes trials for Guantanamo Bay detainees, a rebuke to the administration and its aggressive anti-terror policies.
Justice John Paul Stevens wrote the opinion, which said the proposed trials were illegal under U.S. law and Geneva conventions.
The case focused on Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni who worked as a body guard and driver for Usama bin Laden. Hamdan, 36, has spent four years in the U.S. prison at Guantanamo...
Excerpt. Read more at: Fox News
It's not really a matter that President Bush "overstepped his authority" because for a long time now he made it clear he was waiting on the Supreme Court to make a ruling.
Well, the rats are going to have orgasms all day now. They are fighting for face time on the tube now!
The coverage today is going to be sickening!!
I emphatically agree!
Cnn is wetting all over themselves on this one....
There reporters are giddy with excitement!
FDR is rolling in his grave.
Bush told them to make that ruling and they did.
"May have violated Geneva Convention"
Who the heck is "Geneva" and why should I care about her Convention? Where was "Geneva" when 3,000 of our noncombatants were murdered? Where was the convention by others countries to help us throw out Saddam? Which, frankly, begs the question, does Geneva's Convention apply when Saddam's boy's are running rape rooms, or digging mass graves? I think Geneva has been a failure. Do you think the terrorists are ruminating on whether their actions are in conflict with Miss Geneva?
if the GOP were smart (and I strongly suspect they are NOT this smart!) they would pick up this ball and run with it.
This is the golden jazz-up-the-base-for-November moment that they have been waiting for. After al, the SC just sided with OSAMA BIN LADEN'S DRIVER over POTUS and 60 yrs. of settled law!!! That is 30-second spot GOLD if ever I have heard it!
This needs to be driven home to the American People every day, followed by a push for confirmation of more Conservative judges, AND Congressional action restricting the Supreme Court from taking GWOT cases(and perhaps some others while they are at it)
Sounds like a PLAN ! It's got my vote....
After Kelo, this doesn't surprise me one little bit.
You know, the more I think about this, when the Dems are stupid enough to publicly celebrate a court decision in favor of Osama bin Laden's driver and against our military, perhaps we should just get out of the way and let them celebrate...
If that's the end of it all is fine and dandy. Just hold the bastards at GITMO until they die.
On the other hand, if SCOTUS rules that Hamdan's due process has been violated because he has not been afforded a trial in the US Federal Courts, then the crap has hit the fan.
See my tagline.
Of course they are.
Sorry, to be covered by the Geneva Convention you must wear a uniform, and have identification to the country you are fighting for. Without these you do not get "Prisoner of War" status and attendent benefits of the Geneva Convention.
The @ssholes at DU just think this is the greatest thing ever handed down...
You are quite welcome. I Wasn't too sure at first what it meant either.
I wasn't aware that Al Qaeda had signed the Geneva Convention. This decision is apparently based on the "No Terrorist Left Behind" program.
This seems to upset over 60 years of precedent such as the Quirin case in World War II:
On July 2, 1942 the President and Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, appointed a Military Commission and directed it to try the alleged spies. The President declared
all persons who are subjects, citizens, or residents of any nation at war with the United States or who give obedience to or act under the direction of any such nation, and who during time of war enter or attempt to enter the United States ... through coastal or boundary defenses, and are charged with committing or attempting or preparing to commit sabotage, espionage, hostile or warlike acts, or violations of the law of war, shall be subject to the law of war and to the jurisdiction of military tribunals.
The eight were tried before a Military Commission comprised of seven U.S. Army officers appointed by President Roosevelt from July 8 to August 4, 1942 in the Department of Justice Building in Washington, D.C. The prosecution was headed by Attorney General Frances Biddle and the Army Judge Advocate General, Major General Myron C. Cramer. Defense counsel included Colonel Kenneth C. Royall (later Secretary of War under President Truman) and Major Lausen H. Stone (son of Harlan Fiske Stone, Chief Justice of the United States.)
While the trial was in process, the defense team appealed to the District Court of the District of Columbia, claiming that trial by the Military Commission was illegal. The District Court and then the Appeals Court of the District of Columbia denied their applications for leave to file petitions of habeas corpus.
The Supreme Court heard arguments on July 29 and 30, 1942. On July 31, the Court held:
1.) That the charges preferred against petitioners on which they are being tried by military commission appointed by order ot the President of July 2, 1942, allege an offense or offenses which the president is authorized to order tried before a military commission.
2.) That the military commission was lawfully constituted.
3.) That petitioners are held in lawful custody for trial before the military commission, and have not shown cause for being discharged for writs of habeas corpus.
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