UNHCR Decision on US Secret "Black Sites"

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.....In a written Opinion released to Worldrights on October 7, 2006, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared that the secret detentions of alleged terrorists previously believed to have been held at US- administered "black sites" in Eastern Europe and around the world, violated their internationally recognized human right to receive a fair trial.

..... Specifically, the UN Working Group found the US to be in violation of Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which guarantees detainees the right to proceedings before a court to decide without delay on the lawfulness of their detention or order their release if the detention is not lawful.

..... It stated that "[t]he detention of the 26 ... individuals falls outside of all national and international legal regimes pertaining to the safeguards against arbitrary detention. In addition the secrecy surrounding the detention and the interstate transfer of suspected terrorists may expose the persons affected to torture, forced disappearance, extra-judicial killing and in case they are prosecuted against, to the lack of the guarantees of a fair trial."

..... UN-HCR OPINION No. 29/2006

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NY Times Editorial: New US Laws Deny Legal Rights

.....[With the passage of this law] Our democracy is the big loser. Republicans say Congress must act right now because the men accused of plotting the 9/11 attacks are available for trial. That's pure propaganda. Those men could have been tried and convicted long ago, but President Bush chose not to.

These Are Some of the Bill's Biggest Flaws:

..... Enemy Combatants: A dangerously broad definition of "illegal enemy combatant" in the bill could subject legal residents of the United States, as well as foreign citizens living in their own countries, to summary arrest and indefinite detention with no hope of appeal. The president could give the power to apply this label to anyone he wanted.

..... The Geneva Conventions: The bill would repudiate a half-century of international precedent by allowing Mr. Bush to decide on his own what abusive interrogation methods he considered permissible. And his decision could stay secret - there's no requirement that this list be published.

..... Habeas Corpus: Detainees in U.S. military prisons would lose the basic right to challenge their imprisonment. These cases do not clog the courts, nor coddle terrorists. They simply give wrongly imprisoned people a chance to prove their innocence.

..... Judicial Review: The courts would have no power to review any aspect of this new system, except verdicts by military tribunals. The bill would limit appeals and bar legal actions based on the Geneva Conventions, directly or indirectly. All Mr. Bush would have to do to lock anyone up forever is to declare him an illegal combatant and not have a trial.

..... Coerced Evidence: Coerced evidence would be permissible if a judge considered it reliable - already a contradiction in terms - and relevant. Coercion is defined in a way that exempts anything done before the passage of the 2005 Detainee Treatment Act, and anything else Mr. Bush chooses.

..... Secret Evidence: American standards of justice prohibit evidence and testimony that is kept secret from the defendant, whether the accused is a corporate executive or a mass murderer. But the bill as redrafted by Mr. Cheney seems to weaken protections against such evidence.

..... Offenses: The definition of torture is unacceptably narrow, a virtual reprise of the deeply cynical memos the administration produced after 9/11. Rape and sexual assault are defined in a retrograde way that covers only forced or coerced activity, and not other forms of nonconsensual sex. The bill would effectively eliminate the idea of rape as torture.

..... They'll know that in 2006, Congress passed a tyrannical law that will be ranked with the low points in American democracy, our generation's version of the Alien and Sedition Acts.

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"The Constitution is just a goddamned piece of paper" - G.W. Bush [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on October 13, 2006]

Note: Crimes Against Humanit... UN-HCR Opinion: US ... UN-HCR OPINION No. 29/... NY Times Editorial: ... "The Constitution is j...