Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times on the Web
June 13, 2008 TOKYO (AP) -- The military trials against U.S.-held detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba will not be affected by a Supreme Court ruling that the detainees have the right to appeal in U.S. civilian courts, Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Friday.
Mukasey, speaking at a Group of Eight meeting of justice and home affairs ministers in Tokyo, said he was disappointed with the decision because it would lead to ''hundreds'' of detention cases being referred to federal district court.
''I think it bears emphasis that the court's decision does not concern military commission trials, which will continue to proceed,'' he said. ''Instead it addresses the procedures that the Congress and the president put in place to permit enemy combatants to challenge their detention.''
The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that foreign detainees held for years at Guantanamo have the right to appeal to U.S. civilian courts to challenge their indefinite imprisonment without charges.
President Bush said he strongly disagreed with the decision -- the third time the court has repudiated him on the detainees -- and suggested he might seek yet another law to keep terror suspects at the U.S. Navy prison camp.
Mukasey, who said he had not yet studied the decision, said the administration's next move had not been decided.
''Obviously we're going to comply with the decision,'' he said. ''We're going to study both the decision itself, and whether any legislation or any other action may be appropriate.''
June 13, 2008 TOKYO (AP) -- The military trials against U.S.-held detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba will not be affected by a Supreme Court ruling that the detainees have the right to appeal in U.S. civilian courts, Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Friday.
Mukasey, speaking at a Group of Eight meeting of justice and home affairs ministers in Tokyo, said he was disappointed with the decision because it would lead to ''hundreds'' of detention cases being referred to federal district court.
''I think it bears emphasis that the court's decision does not concern military commission trials, which will continue to proceed,'' he said. ''Instead it addresses the procedures that the Congress and the president put in place to permit enemy combatants to challenge their detention.''
The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that foreign detainees held for years at Guantanamo have the right to appeal to U.S. civilian courts to challenge their indefinite imprisonment without charges.
President Bush said he strongly disagreed with the decision -- the third time the court has repudiated him on the detainees -- and suggested he might seek yet another law to keep terror suspects at the U.S. Navy prison camp.
Mukasey, who said he had not yet studied the decision, said the administration's next move had not been decided.
''Obviously we're going to comply with the decision,'' he said. ''We're going to study both the decision itself, and whether any legislation or any other action may be appropriate.''