Cuba Detainees seek right to Appeal
The Bush administration's plan to use military tribunals to try foreign terrorism suspects should allow appeals to civilian courts, five military lawyers assigned to suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, said Wednesday in papers filed with the Supreme Court.
"The Constitution cannot countenance an open-ended presidential power, with no civilian review whatsoever, to try anyone the president deems is subject to a military tribunal," the five officers argued.
The White House has proposed using military tribunals, also known as commissions, to try some of the more than 600 al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects being held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay.
The Justice Department has reported that 762 of those detained during the weeks after the attacks were charged with immigration violations and that most have been deported. But their names, their attorneys' names and details of their arrests have not been furnished.
For about 100 detainees charged with crimes and 50 held as potential witnesses, the government has released names but no other details.
About 300 detainees are unaccounted for.
"Secret arrests and detentions constitute a serious human rights violation and should not be allowed in the U.S. or anywhere else," said William Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA, one of the groups that had sought Supreme Court review.
"They provide a tempting environment in which additional human rights abuses are likely," Schulz said.