<p>Golani,
The US has twice abducted totally innocent individuals and “rendered” them to foreign countries where they were subject to torture, because they were mistakenly believed to be terrorists at the time. This is documented fact. Both were Muslim & Arabic. One was a German citizen whose name happened to be almost the same as a terrorist, who was taken into custody while crossing a European border on vacation; the other was a Canadian citizen apprehended when he needed to change planes in New York. In both these cases the Government ultimately acknowledged their mistake, but not until after they had spent months in custody and both suffered torture. If US authorities can mistakenly kidnap innocent individuals because their names are similar to suspected terrorists, they can make the same mistake when they arrest and detain people as enemy combatants.</p>
<p>Habeas corpus is the procedure by which innocent individuals who have been wrongly incarcerated can force a court hearing to determine whether their is legal cause to hold them. It is useless as a tactic for demonstrably guilty people, because it doesn’t get anyone out of jail- it just gets them a court hearing. There is a man in Guantanamo named Abdul Rahim who, as a teenager, was captured and imprisoned by the Taliban and accused of being a spy for America. The Taliban tortured him and forced him, under torture, to swear allegiance to the Taliban during a videotaped interrogation session. After the US invaded Afghanistan, he was released from Taliban custody but almost immediately swept up and became a prisoner of the Americans. Somewhere along the way, the US authorities found a video of the man’s interrogation, and because it ended with his swearing allegiance to the Taliban, they designated him an enemy combatant. He is 23 years old and now has been incarcerated 4 years. He is not charged with any crime. All investigation that has been carried out by his legal team – (interviews with his families and others who were imprisoned with him by the Taliban) – tend to verify his story. </p>
<p>This is one of the cases that is currently pending on habeas corpus. All he is asking is for a hearing in which the US government be required to show what evidence they have that he is, indeed, an “enemy combatant”. They don’t have to prove that he committed a crime, only that he was actually a combatant on the battlefield, as opposed to the other side’s prisoner. </p>
<p>Because the Military Commissions Act is retroactive, the attorneys for the US Dept. of Justice will now come to court to move to dismiss this man’s habeas corpus petition. As the man is not charged with any crime – and therefore will not be tried, ever, by any military commision – he will remain incarcerated indefinitely at Guantanamo. It could be 5 years; it could be 10 years - he has no rights. </p>
<p>(See <a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Terror-Detainees.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Terror-Detainees.html</a> )</p>
<p>It is sometimes said that “a liberal is a conservative who has been arrested.” It is very easy to ignore the impact of this law as long as you don’t know anyone being wrongfully held under it – but if some relative of yours was the one who was wrongfully declared to be an “enemy combatant”, held for years without recourse to the courts, then you would feel differently. </p>
<p>The protections in the US Constitution and Bill of Rights are there to protect the innocent, and it is the innocent who suffer, sooner or later, when the rights are stripped away.</p>