Posted on 03/12/2003 11:50:53 PM PST by kattracks
A US court ruling that suspected Taliban and al-Qaida fighters held at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba have no right to hearings in American courts could set a dangerous precedent, a UN expert said yesterday.The UN special expert on the independence of judges and lawyers, Param Cumaraswamy, said the prisoners' detention without trial offended against the first principle of the rule of law.
On Tuesday, the appeal court in the District of Columbia ruled that the men had no legal rights in the US. It was a victory for the Bush administration, which plans to hold the men indefinitely for interrogation, and then either send them home or put them before military tribunals.
If the 650 Guantanamo inmates were detained subject to the US system, they would have access to lawyers and could only be held for a short time before being charged or released.
Mr Cumaraswamy said the ruling "appears to imply that a government of a sovereign state could lease a piece of land from a neighbouring state, set up a detention camp, fully operate and control it, arrest suspects of terrorism from other jurisdictions, send them to this camp, and deny them their legal rights - including principles of due process generally granted to its own citizens - on the grounds that the camp is physically outside its jurisdiction".
"The war on terrorism cannot possibly be won by denial of legal rights, including fundamental principles of due process of those merely suspected of terrorism," Mr Cumaraswamy said.
AP, Geneva
The prisoners on Guantanamo are not "suspects of terrorism". They are unlawful combatants.
Seriously, the United Nations is acting punch drunk these days.
Where was Al Queda's "due process" for the thousands of innocent civilians they murdered on 9/11? These Islamofascist cowards don't wage war in the name of any country, they are simply illegal combatants, if they didn't want to be locked up they shouldn't have fought us.
The irony is that the prisoners in Cuba are treated 100000 times better than they deserve.
One more reason to get out of the UN...
It's not- it will be won by denial of life !
Visualize bras
Breathe
relax
aim
squeeze
"...that man should pursue his own happiness." This is the foundation of what we call ethics, or natural law. For the several articles into which it is branched in our systems, amount to no more than demonstrating, that this or that action tends to man's real happiness, and therefore very justly concluding that the performance of it is a part of the law of nature; or, on the other hand, that this or that action is destructive of man's real happiness, and therefore the law of nature forbids it."
"This law of nature, being co-eval with mankind and dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is binding all over the globe, in all countries, and at all times: no human laws are of any validity, if contrary to this; and such of them as are valid derive all their force, and all their authority,mediately or immediately, from the original."
"But in order to apply this to the particular exigencies of each individual, it is necessary to have recourse to reason; whose office it is to discover what the law of nature directs in every circumstance of life; by considering, what method will tend most effectually to our own substantial happiness."
There's the problem: The UN is looking to its own happiness; it wants to be king of the world, and it's willing to imperil the welfare of other people to gain supremacy over all nations in matters of law and justice. They don't give a whit about the treatment of the terrorists; it's only important that the UN is in charge of their fate. (mebbe they'll carve a chunk out of Austrailia for a Wahhabi State. "They need a sense of participation.")
These modern-day pirates have no national affiliation but that which is an accident of birth; they have chosen to operate outside the constraints of any law of nations, and they are in violation of the natural law.
Does the UN wish to become their sovereign? Yes. In the absence of other "citizens", they'll take these pirates to play with, and take from that action a token of legitimacy....it's all they got.....they'll use it.
The prisoners should be drained of information useful to us, then hung before the world as an example. That action, reasonable people will agree, will tend most effectually to our own substantial happiness. It's a matter of our life and death. And only we have the power and resolve to do the harsh, but reasonable, right thing.
Well, when you join the terrorists, you must accept that you are putting yourself in danger.
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