Legalities
Life, Politics and the Law From ABC News Correspondent Jan Crawford Greenburg
Jan Crawford Greenburg is a correspondent for ABC News' bureau in Washington DC. She covers politics, the Supreme Court and provides legal analysis for ABC News. She is a graduate of the University of Chicago's law school and is a member of the New York bar.
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Judge Orders Release of Five Terror Suspects
November 20, 2008 2:54 PM
A federal judge has ordered the government to release five terror suspects detained at Guantanamo, saying it failed to prove the men planned to take up arms against the United States.
Judge Richard Leon directed the government to "take all necessary and appropriate diplomatic steps" to bring about their release, according to a lawyer in the courtroom. Unlike another federal judge last month, however, he did not order them released into the United States.
Leon urged the government not to appeal, but to instead find a country to accept the men. They are native Algerians who were captured in Bosnia in 2001.
One of the five is Lakhdar Boumediene, who had argued that he and the other detainees had a constitutional right to a court hearing to challenge their imprisonment. The Supreme Court agreed in June, paving the way for the hearing in Leon’s courtroom on whether the government could continue holding the six detainees.
According to a lawyer in the courtroom, Leon faulted the government's evidence that the men were enemy combatants. It relied on one classified document by an unnamed source.
Nadia Asancheyev, a fellow at the Georgetown Center on National Security and Law, said Leon told the courtroom he could not "adequately assess the reliability of the sole source of information" the men were enemy combatants.
Justice Department Spokesman Peter Carr said the department was "of course disappointed by, and disagree with," Leon’s decision. He said it was "perhaps an understandable consequence" of the fact that neither Congress nor the Supreme Court set out any rules for how judges in these cases should proceed.
He urged Congress to step in and set up guidelines that allow "the Government to present its case without imperiling national security."
"These cases present extraordinary circumstances where wartime enemies have been captured abroad and are being detained based often on the same sort of classified intelligence relied upon by the military in conducting wartime operations,” Carr said.
Carr praised Leon for ruling that a sixth Gitmo detainee was an enemy combatant.
In his ruling, which he read from the bench, Leon also cautioned that the case was "unique" and that "no one should be lulled into a false sense" that other detainee cases would be similarly decided.
Last month, federal District Court Judge Ricardo Urbina ordered 17 Chinese Muslims released into the United States. The government had conceded those 17 were no longer enemy combatants, but said no country would take them. That case is on appeal and will be argued before a federal appeals court panel on Monday.
Earlier this year, a federal appeals court rejected the government's claims that another detainee was an enemy combatant.
November 20, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (33)
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COWARDLY LEFTIST RESPONCES MAKE ME SICK
LUCKY THIS WILL BE A ONE TERM AND VERY DISSAPOINTING PRESIDENCY
Posted by: rick | Nov 20, 2008 7:58:22 PM
dawglover, a very impassioned speech, but oh so overly simplistic. You seem to take the common right-wing view picked up from heroic U.S. war movies that Americans can do no wrong and Muslims are automatically terrorists. Then you imply that since terrorists beheaded some of our people we are justified in sinking to their level -- to be equally savage and uncivilized. So totally absurd & illogical! Whiners? Do you think anyone who believes in the authority of the Constitution and international law is a whiner?
Posted by: Randor | Nov 20, 2008 8:03:17 PM
BARNEY FRANK NANCY PELOSI CHRISS DODD WAXMAN SHUEMER YOU GUYS CAN REALLY PICK THEM GOD HELP US
Posted by: rick | Nov 20, 2008 8:03:45 PM
HEY RICK, IF YOU WANT TO DROP NAMES? HERE ARE TWO THAT TRUMP YOUR WHOLE LIST -- BUSH, CHENEY. WAKE UP, MAN!
Posted by: Randor | Nov 20, 2008 8:18:06 PM
SUPRISE YOU KNEW WHO I WAS TALKING ABOUT THEY SHOULD GET THE SAME RIGHTS WE GOT ON 911
Posted by: rick | Nov 20, 2008 8:30:44 PM
The terrorists at Gitmo should be released immediately. Once freed, they will need money to buy speedboats and RPGs to take command of their choice of ships.
Posted by: VT2010 | Nov 20, 2008 8:58:55 PM
Randor, those poor innocents in Gitmo would slit your throat so fast you wouldn't have time to beg for mercy. Thats reality. You want to talk simplistic, how about if we all just be nice to one another and then all the bad people will quit being mean because the big ole bully the USA will be nicer to them. Then we will try to find out the root cause of why they are soooo angry. We can give them some money, and a better house, and make them eat organic food and they will all be nicer.
Posted by: dawglover | Nov 20, 2008 10:44:17 PM
dawglover, I've heard this kind of disconnected rant from the right-wing for years, but it makes no sense. Do you really think the U.S. can thumb its nose at the world and play the Lone Ranger against the rest of the planet? It makes a great movie plot but in the real world it's a fairy tale. And this idea that we can nuke the entire Middle East is the epitome of hill-billy ignorance. I spent over 20 yrs overseas working for DOD gathering intel on the bad guys for our War-fighters. And I can tell you our War-fighters are the best that's ever been -- problem is their civilian bosses are sorely incompetent. They seem to have acquired their skills and knowledge of foreign policy issues at the movies.
Posted by: Randor | Nov 21, 2008 8:02:48 AM
Hey dawglover, your wild-west cowboy style shooting-from-the-hip approach to all the world's problems seems to spill over into the sweeping generalizations that only weaken your argument.
It is very hard for many Americans to divorce themselves from the ever-so-popular plots of the heroic American war movies, and I truly understand that because I love my country as much as anyone (I volunteered for Vietnam in 1963).
But the reality is: in Vietnam and ever since, we've been faced with learning how to fight terrorist/guerrilla wars, and it the toughest challenge we have ever faced in our history. If we ever expect to succeed in that effort (and we're not doing so well right now) it will not be by building/dropping more and bigger bombs. It will only be the result of a cool calculated strategy with more and more intensive training. (Sorry, no cowboys need apply.) And one crucial element of our overall defense strategy must be maximum cooperation and coordination with our friends around the world. No matter how unromantic it may seem to you, we have to leave the Lone Ranger idea for the comic books. Our nation's security and yes our very future depends on optimum diplomacy and optimum cooperation with our allies. Ask any defense expert -- any other way is a fairy tale, my friend.
Posted by: Randor | Nov 21, 2008 8:55:23 AM
I can see the point of some that these people may be dangerous. However we cant simpley lock them up and throw away the key as we have done. Torcher them into submision and call it detention. If we do that then everything we have fought and bled and died for is over and they have won.
Posted by: getsmart | Nov 21, 2008 10:41:27 AM
Randor, I believe that the constitution you refer to is the CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES! It does not apply to people of other countries nor do their constitutions apply to us. That is why our enemies get away with slaughtering Americans in public. You bleeding hearts need to try living in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, or Iraq for a while. You would be thrown in jail in those countries just for carrying a Christian bible down the street. Oh, and you would not be read any Miranda rights! You would not be allowed to remain silent either, as they have ways of making you 'confess' your crimes. All of you bleeding hearts need to wake up and smell the coffee!
Posted by: Irnotu | Nov 22, 2008 10:36:26 AM
Hey irnotu, I've been called a kool-aid drinker, and a bleeding heart and worse for standing up for the principles my country was founded on, so I don't mind. But it is rather ludicrous for a rad-con to lecture me on what I ought to do. Where were you in 1961-1962? I was stationed in Peshawar, Pakistan. So I probably know a bit more about the place than you do. I am impressed, however, that you know who the U.S. Constitution applies to. Surprising that you could learn such things watching football and heroic war movies.
Posted by: Randor | Nov 23, 2008 10:07:15 AM
With all of the liberals in this country, it won't be long until we will have no defense against those that wish us harm.
I for one, do not wish to have bombs going off at the supermarket, schools, libraries, etc. We must defend ourselves and quit worrying about what is "politically correct".
Get a backbone, America! If someone declares that their goal is our destruction and takes action to meet that goal, then pick up arms and either contain or eliminate that person, government or religion.
We as a country, can no longer apologize for taking war to those who make war upon us. If our government chooses to continue to apologize for doing so, we will become the next conquered country in the world. The question will be, what language will our children have to learn?
Posted by: Duck and Cover | Dec 17, 2008 12:33:48 PM
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