`Mistake` captives languish at Guantanamo
Feb 13, 2006, 18:03 GMT
MIAMI, FL, United States (UPI) -- Five Chinese Muslims the U.S. military admits were captured by mistake want the U.S. Supreme Court`s help in getting out of the Guantanamo Bay military prison.
Their capture and detention in the Cuban facility for more than four years has created a legal dilemma for the Bush administration, which fears releasing them back to China where they could face torture, yet refuses to grant them asylum for fear of opening floodgates to others.
'These men have been adjudged by the military to be, essentially, mistakes. They are innocent men captured by mistake by U.S. forces abroad,' Neil McGaraghan, a Miami lawyer representing two of the detainees told the Christian Science Monitor.
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http://news.monstersandcritics.com/northamerica/article_1097256.php/%60Mistake%60_captives_languish_at_Guantanamo ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Innocent, but in Limbo at Guantánamo
February 13, 2006
Warren Richey
The Christian Science Monitor
Five Muslim detainees from China's western Xinjiang province are stranded in a legal no man's land at the US terrorism prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
They shouldn't be there. Even the US military has found that the men, members of the besieged Uighur ethnic group, are not enemy combatants. But their ordeal in custody isn't over. Because they could face harsh treatment back in China - and the US doesn't want to set a precedent by granting them asylum here - they sit in a barracks-like detention center waiting for a country to give them a home....
"Liberty can never be secure when the judicial branch declares its impotence," writes Boston lawyer Sabin Willett. "The ruling proclaims an executive with unchecked power to seize innocents from around the globe, transport them to United States territory, and imprison them at its pleasure." If the lower court ruling is allowed to stand, it will render Guantánamo "a place and prison beyond law," Mr. Willett says.
The case arises at a time when Congress and the White House seek to limit the opportunities for detainees at Guantánamo to challenge their captivity in US courts. The Detainee Treatment Act, signed Dec. 30, strips federal judges of their authority to hear such challenges, and narrows the types of cases that can be heard by the federal appeals court in Washington. Aspects of the law are being challenged at the federal appeals court and in a pending Supreme Court case.
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http://www.civilrights.org/issues/human/details.cfm?id=40472