Lakhdar Boumedienne: My Gitmo Nightmare

[Winehole23]

ON Wednesday, America’s detention camp at Guantánamo Bay will have been open for 10 years. For seven of them, I was held there without explanation or charge. During that time my daughters grew up without me. They were toddlers when I was imprisoned, and were never allowed to visit or speak to me by phone. Most of their letters were returned as “undeliverable,” and the few that I received were so thoroughly and thoughtlessly censored that their messages of love and support were lost.



Some American politicians say that people at Guantánamo are terrorists, but I have never been a terrorist. Had I been brought before a court when I was seized, my children’s lives would not have been torn apart, and my family would not have been thrown into poverty. It was only after the United States Supreme Court ordered the government (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/washington/13scotus.html) to defend its actions before a federal judge that I was finally able to clear my name and be with them again.


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/opinion/sunday/my-guantanamo-nightmare.html?_r=2&ref=opinion

[Winehole23]

this guy didn't deserve it. what say you, Spurstalk?

[boutons_deux]

Gitmo is just another pile of Repug/MIC shit passed onto the Barry, who let himself be intimidated by the Repug bastards into keeping it open and occupied.

[Winehole23]

that's functionally not much different than agreeing

[ElNono]

Terrible. Thanks for posting.

Unfortunately, there's much more important topics to discuss, like the quality of dishwasher detergent...

[Winehole23]

Terrible. Thanks for posting.I never heard that the first ten times I posted about Boumedienne. Thanks for replying.

[Winehole23]

nobody else has a godammed thing to say, apparently

[Winehole23]

even though the judge ruled there was not sufficient evidence for the original detention

[Wild Cobra]

nobody else has a godammed thing to say, apparently
It's not that.

You and others are using this as an attack on just one aspect of shit that happens. Injustice is not acceptable, but it happens all the time. even in the court systems, people wrongly convicted.

Shit happens.

[Winehole23]

eat shit and die, basically

[Winehole23]

did you read the OP?

[Winehole23]

and what others? surely you don't count boutons?

[Winehole23]

I'd bitch just as loud and just as long if Obama did it.

[Winehole23]

and now that I mention it, he is still doing it. There is still a Gitmo.

promises, promises

[Wild Cobra]

I'd bitch just as loud and just as long if Obama did it.
Yes, but you are only bitching about it because it is a media driven news item. What about all the cases of people in our own justice system that get the wrong verdict? How do we know who does and doesn't get the right outcome? How do we know Lakhdar really wasn't guilty, but those with the evidence chose not to release it?

I prefer not to take a solid stance on these cases because there are too many "what ifs."

[Winehole23]

Yes, but you are only bitching about it because it is a media driven news item. This is a forum for media driven tales about current events. Politics.

Hello?

[Winehole23]

you know, headlines. you've made thousands of them. here on Spurstalk.

[Winehole23]

you're the reigning Poster of the Year, in case you forgot

[Wild Cobra]

This is a forum for media driven tales about current events. Politics.

Hello?
LOL...

I just don't see this as a political issue, but rather mistakes made by the people who placed him there. I'm not concerning myself over this one. Again, I will say it's not the policies made that I fear as much as the corrupt people who control the buttons. I see no used in bringing this up without discussing solutions. A start might be to hold the people accountable that were unable to show cause to keep him there when it was demanded by the courts.

I don't have a problem with Gitmo. However, like any tool, corrupt people in power will abuse it.

[scott]

We're accustom to accepting Collateral Damage, which one might otherwise suspect flies in the face of the basic principles of our existence as Americans, if one weren't so busy justifying said Collateral Damage.

[scott]

Immediately posting this, I realized WE HAVE CROWNED A NEW MISS AMERICA!!! I don't have time to think about these kinds of things anymore.

[TDMVPDPOY]

what the coalition failed was to defining what is a terrorists...

they just chucked anyone fightin against us as a terrorists, when we dont even know if they are freedom fighters without any association with the terrorists groups...but whatever rocks ur boat since the US is footing the bill puttin these clowns in detention camps...

[ElNono]

Immediately posting this, I realized WE HAVE CROWNED A NEW MISS AMERICA!!! I don't have time to think about these kinds of things anymore.

Pics or it didn't happen, tbh...

(and now we've officially derailed this thread)

[baseline bum]

LOL home of the free.

[Winehole23]

Pics or it didn't happen, tbh...

(and now we've officially derailed this thread)Happens all the time. I'm ok with that.

[Winehole23]

I just don't see this as a political issue, but rather mistakes made by the people who placed him there.mistakes made by US officials can become a political problem, but you're right, most people are pretty blase about what their government does every day.

[baseline bum]

LOL...

I just don't see this as a political issue, but rather mistakes made by the people who placed him there. I'm not concerning myself over this one. Again, I will say it's not the policies made that I fear as much as the corrupt people who control the buttons. I see no used in bringing this up without discussing solutions. A start might be to hold the people accountable that were unable to show cause to keep him there when it was demanded by the courts.

I don't have a problem with Gitmo. However, like any tool, corrupt people in power will abuse it.

:rollin @ the idea that habeas corpus isn't one of the most critical parts of being able to hold accusers accountable.

[Winehole23]

the changing legal landscape:


In Boumediene v. Bush,[1] (http://www.stanfordlawreview.org/online/post-boumediene-paradox-habeas-corpus-or-due-process#footnote_1) the Supreme Court famously held that the writ of habeas corpus, guaranteed by the Suspension Clause,[2] (http://www.stanfordlawreview.org/online/post-boumediene-paradox-habeas-corpus-or-due-process#footnote_2) had “full effect” at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.[3] (http://www.stanfordlawreview.org/online/post-boumediene-paradox-habeas-corpus-or-due-process#footnote_3) But Boumediene did not specify how other constitutional rights, such as the writ’s oftentimes-inextricable partner, the Due Process Clause,[4] (http://www.stanfordlawreview.org/online/post-boumediene-paradox-habeas-corpus-or-due-process#footnote_4) should influence the analysis. After Boumediene, the D.C. Circuit maintained that habeas only protected the fact, place, or duration of detention,[5] (http://www.stanfordlawreview.org/online/post-boumediene-paradox-habeas-corpus-or-due-process#footnote_5) and it expressly refused to apply due process to extraterritorial habeas challenges.[6] (http://www.stanfordlawreview.org/online/post-boumediene-paradox-habeas-corpus-or-due-process#footnote_6) It also strictly enforced the categorical dichotomy prescribed by the Military Commissions Act (MCA), which restored federal habeas jurisdiction but stripped jurisdiction over “any other action . . . relating to any aspect of the detention, transfer, treatment, trial, or conditions of confinement” of detainees.[7] (http://www.stanfordlawreview.org/online/post-boumediene-paradox-habeas-corpus-or-due-process#footnote_7) Indeed, after almost ten years of litigation, many commentators condemned the D.C. Circuit for practically vitiating Boumediene’s holding.[8] (http://www.stanfordlawreview.org/online/post-boumediene-paradox-habeas-corpus-or-due-process#footnote_8)


But in Aamer v. Obama[9] (http://www.stanfordlawreview.org/online/post-boumediene-paradox-habeas-corpus-or-due-process#footnote_9)—brought to enjoin the physically invasive force-feeding procedures used against hunger strikers at Guantanamo[10] (http://www.stanfordlawreview.org/online/post-boumediene-paradox-habeas-corpus-or-due-process#footnote_10)—the D.C. Circuit recently held that a habeas suit can be brought to challenge more than the fact, place, or duration of detention.[11] (http://www.stanfordlawreview.org/online/post-boumediene-paradox-habeas-corpus-or-due-process#footnote_11) Substantially broadening its previous interpretation of the writ, the D.C. Circuit ruled that habeas jurisdiction can encompass challenges to conditions of confinement—one of the “other action[s]” proscribed by the MCA. Even though the detainees’ claim failed on the merits, the detainees were ultimately permitted to challenge the government’s procedures as an unlawful violation of the right against unwanted medical treatment.


In effect, Aamer creates an interesting paradox: despite the D.C. Circuit’s decisions ruling otherwise, noncitizen detainees at Guantanamo are effectively allowed to bring due process challenges, but under the auspices of habeas corpus. Further exploring the habeas-due process relationship in prior case law and scholarship, this Essay will consider this paradox as applied in Aamer and future prisoner litigation.

http://www.stanfordlawreview.org/online/post-boumediene-paradox-habeas-corpus-or-due-process