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US Expands Afghan Prison Rights
Prisoners
held by the US military in Afghanistan will for the first time have the
right to challenge their indefinite detention and call witnesses in
their defence, according to published reports.
The new system,
due to come into effect this week, would allow more than 600 Afghan
prisoners held at the Bagram military base to submit evidence in their
defence, The New York Times said on Saturday.
Citing unnamed Pentagon officials, the newspaper said the new guidelines would assign a US military official to each detainee, and would mark the first substantive change in the overseas detention policies that Barack Obama, the US president, inherited from the Bush administration.
These officials would not be lawyers but could for the first time gather witnesses and evidence on behalf of the detainees to challenge their detention in proceedings before a military-appointed review board, the report said.
'Helpful step'
Wahad Sadaat, the deputy
mayor of Kabul municipality, told Al Jazeera that having US military
officials facilitate the situation of detainees is a "helpful step".
"The legal assistance is of crucial importance but we should not forget the weakened infrastructure of the judicial system in the country," he said.
"The new arrangement looks very helpful in that it will somehow address the need of the prisoners as well as the families they have left behind."
International human rights organisations have long criticised conditions at the Bagram facility, where detainees have been held - many of them for six years.
But unlike the prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba, the detainees have had no access to lawyers, no right to hear the allegations against them, and only rudimentary reviews of their status as "enemy combatants."
The changes are expected to be announced this week after an obligatory congressional review, The New York Times said.
As
part of a prison-wide protest that began in July, detainees at Bagram,
located north of Kabul, have refused visits from the International
Committee of the Red Cross and have declined recreation time and family
visits.
Human rights campaigners have argued that the prisoners
should be given the same rights as those at Guantanamo, but the US
military argues that Bagram detainees should be treated differently
because they are being held in an active theatre of war.
Their status is the subject of petitions in the US.
A
federal judge ruled in April that several Bagram detainees have the
right to challenge their detention in US courts, and the Obama
administration has asked a federal appeals court to overturn the
decision.
New system 'inadequate'
Ramzi
Kassem, a law professor at City University of New York and attorney
for a Bagram detainee, said the move is just "window dressing".
"The whole thing was meant to pull the wool over the eyes of the judicial system,'' he told The Associated Press.
"These changes don't come anywhere near an adequate substitute for a real review."
Kassem said the changes appear to amount to a review by a military representative assigned to a detainee.
The
representative would not be bound by confidentality, thus making this
system similar to one already rejected by the US Supreme Court in 2008.
"These improvements are really just smoke and mirrors,'' Kassem said.
Kassem represents Amin al-Bakri, a Yemeni national who was taken to Bagram after being detained in Thailand in 2002.
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Show AllThese officials would not be lawyers but could for the first time gather witnesses and evidence on behalf of the detainees to challenge their detention in proceedings before a military-appointed review board, the report said.
But unlike the prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba, the detainees have had no access to lawyers, no right to hear the allegations against them, and only rudimentary reviews of their status as "enemy combatants."
No 'rights' at all then. Absolute sham. Just what we expected.
This is not a Prisoner's Rights move.
It's a Propaganda strategy.
Obama needs cover from his base who is finally beginning to see him for what he is.
So he proffers up a few "rights" which under close inspection don't amount to much.
The White House will closely monitor left-leaning websites to judge the level of anger.
Further propaganda will be ratcheted up and fine tuned accordingly.
Cygnus has it right--this is an attempt to appease Big f...ing deal--We should give these war criminals the same deal when we run their asses in for murder one and grand theft oil.
When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
2.1 We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
2.2 That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
2.3 Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
2.4 But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. WEEK OF OCT 4TH--MARCH/NATIONAL STRIKE--Anyone need a ride?
Gosh, more smoke and mirrors from Obama. The good thing is that more and more of us "change you can believe in" people are waking up.
To my huge surprise, yesterday when I mentioned to a group of people that I thought Wilson's "you lie!" was the only true thing I had heard during Obama's speech, they all agreed! And these were "Obama is great, just trust him, give him time, he has a brilliant secret strategy, etc." people only a month ago.
President Emannuel needs to reflect on an observation attributed to Lincoln: "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time." Flim-flam stops working when people start to see through it.
so we invade a country ignore their judicial system round
up people stick people in a jail and deny them representation.
its so american. when will we ever learn? i have a feeling
that the americans in charge took the short bus to school.
we are slow learners and all this will blow back at us
in a bad way. how many terrorists will this create?