US court to hear Guantanamo cases

The US Supreme Court is to hear appeals by Afghan war detainees at the US military's Guantanamo Bay camp in Cuba who say they are being held illegally.

The court will review a ruling that lower courts do not have the jurisdiction to consider claims that inmates are being held in breach of international law.

news.bbc.co.uk...

Well, this is certainly good news.

The golden document of civilized europeans aka the geneva conventions doesn't allow for such detaining of combatants, correct?
What qualifies combatants here? Someone fighting in a conflict for a country. In the fight with Iraq there were plenty of prisoners of war, all of whom were given the full scope of rights according to geneva.
So what's the difference? Most of the "people" who are complaining about their violated rights were caught as freelancing terrorists-in-training in the camps in afghanistan. They were not fighting for a nation. They are not protected by the geneva conventions.

So, some people caught with blueprints on how to bomb american cities, poison water supplies, and blow up planes are mad that they don't get to talk to their friends. Sorry, guess you got caught on the wrong side of the fence.

The Supreme Court will decide shortly that the Al-Qaeda operatives in gitmo are not under the geneva convention.

I anxiously await the arguments from the liberal lawyers about how we should return the 'freedom fighters' to their families.

Djarums: "So, some people caught with blueprints on how to bomb american cities, poison water supplies, and blow up planes are mad that they don't get to talk to their friends. Sorry, guess you got caught on the wrong side of the fence.

The Supreme Court will decide shortly that the Al-Qaeda operatives in gitmo are not under the geneva convention.

I anxiously await the arguments from the liberal lawyers about how we should return the 'freedom fighters' to their families."

Funny, I always go according to the "innocent until proven guilty" axiom that is espoused by the US government. The term Prisoners Of War is NOT negotiable.

If you are fighting in a war and you are captured, your captors must follow the Geneva Conventions. The Nazis were charged with ignoring them in Nuremburg.

If the US can make up the term "enemy combatant", what is to stop any foreign army out there from slaughtering their US POWs? Answer: Nothing is stopping them.

By ignoring the Geneva Convention, and jailing people in military prisons (US citizens and multi-nationals), the United States government is making the world more dangerous for it's own troops.

Good work!

"Sorry, guess you got caught on the wrong side of the fence"

You'd better hope you stay on the right side of the fence, too. Think Jose Padilla. He had plans IN HIS HEAD about possibly committing a terrorist act. PLANS! He's now been incarcerated for over a year with no access to his family or to any lawyer.

But, I guess you trust that your military and your government never makes a mistake, or never does something illegal for it's own benefit. Who needs actual Law when you can just trust your government to take care of everything? Why would you need legal protection from your own military, when they're really just trying to help out and make you happy? Who needs an oversight committee when everything is just so darn perfect?

Don't think your government can't make you "disappear" yourself. Gitmo is step 1, they are seeing what kind of sheep you are.

So say baaa.

jakomo

So you criticize me for trusting my military? I know I'm not singlehandedly capable of making my country safe for me and my family. As a result of this, I rely on the nation I live in for various levels of protection from the bottom feeding members of society (as much as some of you argue that there are no such horrible people and our government fabricates them for it's own gain).

No one wants innocent people thrown in a cell for no reason. If, for one moment, you could descend from the high horse of self morality, you would understand that. If any of the people held at gitmo were innocent of wrongdoing of course I would want them sent home.

Look who you give as an example. Padilla? That son of a bitch wanted to set off a radioactive bomb in a populated area. I do not care if he gets fed to the crocodiles. # him and # people like him.

No one is out advocating for the rights of the victims of terrorist attacks to be united with their loved ones, so forgive me for not buying into arguments that wish for the perpetrators of such attacks to be with their loved ones.

Innocent until proven guilty is a fundemantal in this country. What you seem to be missing is that there are certain things that you just aren't privvy too. Neither am I. There are 6 Billion people in this world, and nearly 300 million in America. The government does not have to show their methods of evidence collecting to all of those people because quite simply (and I have law enforcement experience) you do not write books about your plants while your plants are still in place. That's just common sense.

It's not my business what hard evidence is in the government's possession regarding the detainees at gitmo. Nor is it yours. That's just something one has to deal with when talking about international affairs. It's part of living in a country. If that's too much for someone to handle, well hey... there's lots of utopian cults out there waiting with open arms.

Additionally jakomo, i like how you say that i refuse to accept that my government can make a mistake. I disagree with that statement. You just see it the opposite way. Apparently you are of the impression that they can do no right. That no one there can be trusted. I fail to see how you can criticize me for my thoughts when yours are clearly just as deeply set.

I keep away from delusions of grandeur. I understand that I am a citizen of the United States of America and that I am not it's president. I do not know everything. i don't know what the evidence is against the gitmo detainees, I don't know about the WMD in iraq stuff, I don't know who killed Kennedy. Maybe someone does know those things. But to criticize my belief that not everything my own government does is caused by a group of secretly evil people is extremely short-sighted and in fact worse than what you accuse me of. Perhaps in an effort to call others sheep for following things, some people have become sheep themselves and no longer pay mind to what they're criticizing as long as they're criticizing something.

Originally posted by Paradigm
The US Supreme Court is to hear appeals by Afghan war detainees at the US military's Guantanamo Bay camp in Cuba who say they are being held illegally.

The court will review a ruling that lower courts do not have the jurisdiction to consider claims that inmates are being held in breach of international law.

news.bbc.co.uk...

Well, this is certainly good news.

This is GOOD?!

Its good we give freedom to the TERRORISTS that tryed to kill Americans?

If there would be a REAL Supreme Court and not a LIBERAL one then this hearing would never happen!

Liberals will hear the Guantanamo case but will not hear the 10 Comendments case!

This again shows that LIBERALS WORSHIP satan!

Im sorry...maybe I should...but I really cant bring my self to give a # about the terrorist's we caught in Afghanistan or elsewhere. I dont care what happens to them. As long as they arent blowing any more American buildings up.

What can one say. Some deeply entrenched dogma here.

My personal thoughts are that we (you and I) don't know for sure what the majority of these people have been imprsoned for. They are being called 'enemy combatants' but....the US Government could call me anything it wanted and it would be broadcast into the media and people would believe it.

This, to me, is not about waiting for the news to tell you what to think but about thinking for yourself.

As an aside: the US likes to call the uprising in Iraq the work of terrorists but, under the Geneva convention, any state which is being occupied and rises up aginst this cannot be called terrorists but freedom fighters. This is in the Geneva Convention!!! But....of course, the US (and UK, I'm not taking sides here) government would never, ever lie to it's own people. Would it??

Djarums: "Innocent until proven guilty is a fundemantal in this country. What you seem to be missing is that there are certain things that you just aren't privvy too. Neither am I. There are 6 Billion people in this world, and nearly 300 million in America. The government does not have to show their methods of evidence collecting to all of those people because quite simply (and I have law enforcement experience) you do not write books about your plants while your plants are still in place. That's just common sense.

It's not my business what hard evidence is in the government's possession regarding the detainees at gitmo. Nor is it yours. That's just something one has to deal with when talking about international affairs. "

There's the fundamental difference between our opinions.

I DON'T believe my government has the right to withhold information to ME about illegal incarcerations and torture. I pay their freakin salaries, I vote for or against them, and this is MY country just as much as it's theirs.

You would be comfortable in a communist country, it would appear. You are only told things you "need to know" and that is decided by those in power. Communists are trusting sheep.

And don't tell me it's none of my business, if you want to hide your head in the sand that's your prerogative, not mine. I've had this long love affair with this thing called the Truth, and I'm not ready to break the relationship.

"I keep away from delusions of grandeur. I understand that I am a citizen of the United States of America and that I am not it's president. I do not know everything. i don't know what the evidence is against the gitmo detainees, I don't know about the WMD in iraq stuff, I don't know who killed Kennedy. Maybe someone does know those things."

That you don't know these things is not the sad part. I guess the sad part is that you obviously don't care, since if you did you would try to dig up the facts.

"But to criticize my belief that not everything my own government does is caused by a group of secretly evil people is extremely short-sighted and in fact worse than what you accuse me of. Perhaps in an effort to call others sheep for following things, some people have become sheep themselves and no longer pay mind to what they're criticizing as long as they're criticizing something."

Here's a News Flash: Your government and my government and all governments around the world are corrupt. They have censorship, propaganda, scandals, secret agendas, the whole kit and kaboodle. No exceptions. Mostly because no matter how perfect a system that we can create, we still have to rely on people to make it work, human beings with natural greed, natural ambition, and naturally who have other agendas other than their simple platform.

Knowing this, and still blindingly trusting what your government CHOOSES to tell you (especially the US government with it's history of lying), is the height of non-participation. Why even bother voting if you're sure your government will do what's best for you, with no NEED that you even KNOW what they're doing?

"Checks and balances", THAT'S why the US style of democracy is one of the best. The LIMIT of power to elected officials, public scrutiny of those who make decisions.

People who blindly believe and accept everything that their government tells them are sheep. Russian, American, Israeli, Canadian, Trinidadian, etc, the country doesn't matter.


jakomo