Retired Generals Want Scalia Off Gitmo Case

[Judi Lynn]

Retired Generals Want Scalia Off Gitmo Case

Monday, March 27, 2006
(03-27) 17:40 PST WASHINGTON, (AP) --

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was asked Monday to stay out of a case involving a foreign detainee because of remarks Scalia made about the rights of enemy combatants.

Speaking at the University of Freiberg in Switzerland on March 8, Scalia said foreigners waging war against the United States have no rights under the Constitution.

Justices were hearing arguments Tuesday in the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a former driver for Osama bin Laden. His lawyers argue that President Bush overstepped his authority when he ordered Hamdan and other alleged enemy combatants to face special military trials.

Hamdan's lawyers have not called for Scalia to step aside. Instead, five retired generals who support Hamdan's arguments sent a letter late Monday to the court with the request that Scalia withdraw from participating in the case. They say Scalia appears to have prejudged the case.
(snip/...)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/03/27/national/w174027S83.DTL

[twiterpatted]

1. Scalia is and always has been an idiot.

Not to mention a punk-ass-bitch.

[saigon68]

19. Who are the DINOs who voted to confirm this scum?

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

30. It's easy to forget that was a MUCH different age in politics.

Pretty much all appointments got the rubber stamp treatment back then. That doesn't make anyone a DINO.

[Tesha]

33. Abe Fortas? Did he get rubber-stamped?

Face it: The Republicans have *ALWAY*S known how to
fight this sort of a battle and the Democrats have
*ALWAYS* caved-in.

(Maybe one could argue "Bork", but we ended up losing
that appointment to Clarence Thomas, so it's still hard
to count that as a win.)

Tesha

[saigon68]

39. Thomas is worse than Bork

He IS a wolf in sheep's clothes. He was no friend of the underprivileged and he is no more than a black Judas.

He services Scalia under the table on his hands and knees

[debbierlus]

32. Self DELETE

Self-delete.

Wrong thread. Geesh!

[madeline_con]

2. "... foreigners waging war against the United States ..."

I'm not sure a guy who drives for a celeb is guilty of anything. Just my .02.

[MissWaverly]

11. yes, I was thinking that too

I thought that being the designated driver was only a crime in bank robberies where the
crook drives the getaway car.

[madeline_con]

14. LOL! I hadn't even considered "getaway car"...

I was thinking driving from one photo op to another, where he walks around with some Taliban guys for a while, then moves on to the next ridge. :eyes:

[MissWaverly]

35. Thanks, but I think that people must be judged on their actions

otherwise we would be jailing Sadaam personal chef, et al. Let's concentrate
on the perps, Osama's limo driver is not Osama, find Osama and bring him to trial.

[MissWaverly]

3. He has prejudged the case

he said these individuals are not entitled to be tried in a civil court.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. He should be impeached if he does not recuse himself.

The Supreme Court is the court of LAST resort. There's nowhere else to appeal. All jurists are supposed to at least have the illusion of being free of opinion prior to hearing an argument and reading the briefs. Scalia's hubris went too far this time. He is not fit to sit on the bench, and I mean even as a municipal court judge.

[MissWaverly]

8. I think that they have to not judge based on emotions

or we are back to thumbs up and thumbs down of the arena days.

[IndianaGreen]

13. Scalia didn't recuse himself when he went hunting with Cheney

and then heard a case involving Cheney's energy task force.

[ClintonTyree]

24. He is without integrity.........

I was going to mention this myself, his being buddy, buddy with Cheney then not recusing himself. His ethics leave a lot to be desired. He will not recuse himself this time either. He imagines himself the, "Supreme Court Don", and no one is going to tell him what he should do or not do. Power has corrupted his pea sized brain and, much like bush, thinks he has unlimited power to do anything he wants. Like two peas in a pod, bush and Scalia.

[IndianaGreen]

37. The fictional Don Corleone had more integrity than Scalia

At least Roberts recused himself. I expect Scalia, Scalito, and Scalia's sex slave Thomas, to say that every that Bush does in wonderful!

[MissWaverly]

36. I heard Judge Souter

is questioning how habeas corpus was suspended; I have been wondering that myself for
years. I still don't understand the legal basis for GITMO or renditions; or even torture
for that matter. I heard this in reference to the case of Hamdan, the driver for Osama
who has been at GITMO for 4 years.

[LynnTheDem]

4. AMERICANS waging war against foreigners have NO LEGAL RIGHTS.

Remember that, Americans.

[Mr_Spock]

6. WHY hasn't this horrible RW bigot been impeached yet??

He's a sleazy judge who can't be unbiased - he should NOT be a judge at a beauty contest, never mind over things that matter to all of us :mad:

[MissWaverly]

9. do you realize Brownie was the only 1 asked to leave

there was one who resigned and was arrested later, there was one who resigned because he
was indicted, and there was one who resigned who is facing charges of stealing 5,000 from
Target and this is just the White House staff.

[RaleighNCDUer]

28. It's Thomas that gets the beauty contest gigs --

even though it creeps out the contestants.

[0007]

7. Good for these retired military men.

[AndyTiedye]

10. They Have Rights Under those "Quaint" Geneva Conventions…

…since they are prisoners of war. Bush** is blatantly violating that treaty.

The only thing these prisoners could be tried for is war crimes.
Does the Bush** regime really want to go there?
Those should be tried in the International Criminal Court, not by some military tribunal.

[madeline_con]

15. No, not POWs. Enemy combatants.

That's how it's done. Change the law when ya can't stay within it.

[ManiacJoe]

23. You need to read the Geneva Conventions.

It is very specific regarding who it does and does not cover. And it is a very short document as well.

[RaleighNCDUer]

29. They are covered.

We invaded their country, they take up arms against us as irregulars. They are treated as POWs.

Terrorists who come to our country to blow shit up are not covered. How many of the prisoners at Gitmo fit that criterion?

[atreides1]

31. Convention Relevant to the Treatment of POWs

Article 5

The present Convention shall apply to the persons referred to in Article 4 from the time they fall into the power of the enemy and until their final release and repatriation.

Should any doubt arise as to whether persons, having committed a belligerent act and having fallen into the hands of the enemy, belong to any of the categories enumerated in Article 4, such persons shall enjoy the protection of the present Convention until such time as their status has been determined by a competent tribunal.

Read that? Until such time as their status has been determined by a competent tribunal.

The status of those being held in GITMO was determined by one single person, Bush!!!! Not someone who could be defined as competent!!!

[TankLV]

38. They are NOT covered according to bunkerboy and his gang of WAR CRIMINALS.

Although the Geneva Conventions does not make allowances for this, this has not stopped them.

They should be covered, but they're not now.

They are at the mercy of this dictator. Period.

And the Dems are conveniently quiet about this. I expect it of repukes, but the fact that NO ONE is makeing any noise on this on the Dem side is disturbing to say the least.

Add this one to the list of grievances I have against my party.

[Trevelyan]

25. I really wonder about Milosevic death and the drugs that were available to

him and the medical care that wasn't and his death timed to get Clinton and others off the hook from testifying. I was depressed to read the facts about Milosevic's death in the custody of the World Wide Criminal Court and his son is talking to the press about Milosevic being murdered and some very suspicious happenings to Milosevic in the months before his death.

I was wondering why the Criminal Court was not going after bushco for their horrendous torture and war crimes and to think that this international law body might be corrupted by the BFEE and their stinking rich "elite" backers is too much.

[Trevelyan]

26. I am glad the retired generals are stepping forward. AOL Messageboard had

a sick thread titled "Only Lefties Consider This Tortur" about the recent conviction of the dog handler at Gitmo. I cut and pasted a short letter against torture signed by many retired generals, admirals. This letter was written a while back and the torture is ongoing and Halliburton opened another branch of Gitmo 2 months ago and are due to open a third section to hold 500 more victims and guinea pigs for MK-ULTRA mind-control torture this summer.

We have to stop these Nazi Human Experimentation Concentration Camps, now!!

http://www.CagePrisoner.com/

http://www.WitnessToTorture.com

[neuvocat]

12. They just want fat Tony to go away.

He's not competent to hear a case anymore (I mean, look at how he fucked up the facts on Bush v. Gore!). Anytime someone decides to summarize everything in a court case, he or she oversteps his or her bounds and in the process also erodes his or her own standing on legal matters. Fat Tony still has delusions about how powerful the U.S. is and still somehow believes that everyone else gives a shit what he thinks.

[bemildred]

17. Or even just shut up. nt

[sutz12]

16. Ironic

The generals telling the Justice about what proper treatment and rule of law mean. :shrug:

[bliss_eternal]

18. Is there any way we can support the retired generals?

I'd love to show them support for speaking out against that asshat Scalia.

:patriot:

[HuffleClaw]

20. i doubt he will

he just gave the media the finger yesterday

[lovuian]

21. I hear rattlings of Scalia violating the Geneva Convention

thats not a US law thats a World law!!!

[Prophet 451]

22. Prediction

Scalia will refuse to recuse himself. There will be no repercussions to this whatsoever because the far-right can trust Scalia to do as he's told.

[Trevelyan]

27. I thought the person who has the sig line on Scalia saying that convicted

death penalty prisoners should be executed even if evidence was found to prove them guilty was a joking but then read about this "decision". Scalia is clinically insane -- can we pressure the media to do a story on this "decision" to execute innocent people.

[Felix Mala]

34. Was Scalia playing hooky with Dickie Cheney when they taught that

"...all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unaliealble rights...?"

It sad that a guy who claims to work on behalf of the Creator is such an embarassment to all principals we hold dear in this nation.