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daimyo
Monticello

Registered: 05/13/04
Posts: 7,751
Last seen: 12 years, 19 hours
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Padilla
#5478665 - 04/04/06 10:39 AM (17 years, 9 months ago) |
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Article By GINA HOLLAND
A DIVIDED Supreme Court yesterday turned back a challenge to the Bush Administration's wartime detention powers, rejecting an appeal from U.S. citizen Jose Padilla, who until recently had been held as an enemy combatant without traditional legal rights.
Chief Justice John Roberts and two others were concerned about the U.S. Government's handling of Mr Padilla and said they would be watching to ensure he receives the protections "guaranteed to all federal criminal defendants".
Three other justices wanted the nine-member court to consider whether President George W. Bush overstepped his authority by ordering Mr Padilla's detention.
Mr Padilla had become a symbol of the Administration's aggressive pursuit of terror suspects after September 11, 2001. The former Chicago gang member and convert to Islam was held in a military prison for three-and-a-half years, part of that time without access to lawyers.
His supporters wanted the Supreme Court to use his case to declare that Americans cannot be arrested on U.S. soil and held incommunicado.
Justices appeared poised to do that, but with Mr Padilla's appeal pending, the Government abruptly changed its strategy.
Prosecutors brought criminal charges in Florida last year, and now Mr Padilla, 35, has what his lawyers sought all along - traditional legal rights as part of the federal court system.
But judges were angered by the Administration's change in strategy. Judge J. Michael Luttig said the Administration risked its "credibility before the courts" and left the impression that Mr Padilla had been held in military custody "by mistake".
Deborah Pearlstein, director of law and national security at Human Rights First, said: "This is a warning shot for the Administration. It would be hard for the Administration not to see it that way."
Mr Padilla was arrested in 2002 after a trip to Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Government alleged that he had returned to detonate a radiological "dirty bomb" in the U.S.
The criminal charges do not match that claim. He is accused of being part of a terror support cell that provided recruits, money and supplies to Islamic extremists worldwide. He has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to be tried in September.
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"I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
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daimyo
Monticello

Registered: 05/13/04
Posts: 7,751
Last seen: 12 years, 19 hours
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Re: Padilla [Re: daimyo]
#5478667 - 04/04/06 10:40 AM (17 years, 9 months ago) |
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It's about time. If there's one thing that sickens me more than all the rest, it's this detention business. Either give the people a trial, or kill them.
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"I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
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