| WASHINGTON
- July 7 - An Amnesty International report
detailing prisoner abuses in U.S. detention camps drew immediate and forceful condemnation from members of the Green Party of the United States. Greens are urging Chairman Orrin Hatch and other U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee members to uphold constitutional principles and international law during the upcoming hearings on prisoner abuse.
"The alarming documentation of human rights violations
calls attention to the need for open international
monitoring," said Matt Ahearn, Green New Jersey State
Assembly member for central and eastern Bergen County."Greens, like many other Americans, are fearful that
the systematic denial of rights is becoming an
accepted tool of warfare. This flies in the face of
the Geneva Conventions."
The report, released on Monday, documents cases of
sleep deprivation, physical abuse, and isolation, all
of which violate not only the Geneva Conventions but
also the Bush Administration's own June 26 pledge to
respect prisoners' human rights.
Greens call these violations the latest of several
setbacks for democratic and human rights. On Tuesday,
June 17 the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed
the Bush Administration's power to withhold from
public knowledge the names and other details of
hundreds of foreigners detained in the U.S. following
the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
"This decision infringes on established constitutional protections in several ways," said Jo Chamberlain, California Green and co-chair of the Green Party of the United States. "Article 11, Section 9 of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to a writ of habeas corpus. The Sixth Amendment recognizes the right to a public trial. The Circuit Court ruling ignores these protections."
Writing for the 2-1 majority, U.S. Circuit Court Judge David B. Santelle held that judges are in "no position
to second guess the executives' judgement in this area
of national security."
"The protection of citizens' constitutional rights and liberties is exactly the proper and authorized responsibility of judges," responded Ben Manski, Wisconsin Green and co-chair of the Green Party of the United States. "This decision and others have enabled the Bush White House to broaden citizen surveillance, conduct closed immigration hearings, and use the nonlegal terminology 'enemy combatant' to evade the Constitution and international POW protections."
"We also fear that these decisions will allow the Bush Administration to target anti-war activists, non-violent political groups and administration opponents in general," added Manski. "Our rights and liberties are under attack. Secret trials and the witholding of information -- not only on defendants but also their lawyers, as this decision allows for -- makes public monitoring all but impossible."
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