Nat Hentoff's new column in the Village Voice, Justice Denied at the Source is a must-read. He begins,

"The clear lesson is that the government, in its understandable and laudable resolve to protect our security, cannot be relied on to protect our basic rights and liberties." Lawrence Goldman, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, responding to the Justice Department inspector general's report on the post-9-11 mass imprisonment of immigrants with roots in this country

"We did not violate the law." Attorney General John Ashcroft, testifying before the House Judiciary Committee on June 5.

The column addresses the Inspector General's report on the treatment of detainees and the mounting evidence that Ashcroft is unfit for the office he holds. Congress may be beginning to take note.

Amnesty International has released a new report focusing on what happens to children who enter the U.S. without parents.

Illegal immigrant children who are detained after entering the United States without parents often are imprisoned with young convicts, denied access to lawyers and at times strip-searched or placed in solitary confinement for minor infractions, according to a new report by an advocacy organization.

"I would describe the situation as Dickensian," said William F. Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA. "It's truly incredible that in the 21st century in the United States we would allow children who themselves have been victims of crimes to be treated this way."

A sad day for democracy.

A federal appeals court, reversing a lower-court decision, ruled today that the government did not have to disclose the names of more than 700 people detained in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, agreeing with the Justice Department that making that information public could allow Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups to map the course of the investigation.

bq. The 2-to-1 decision by a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia was a rebuff to the civil liberties and other groups that were challenging the Bush administration's refusal to provide the names and other information about people, mostly immigrants, held in connection with the 9/11 terrorism investigation, on the ground of national security.

The court said the government could withhold the dates and locations of arrest, detention and release of all detainees, including those charged with federal crimes, and the names of lawyers representing them.

The case is Center for National Security Studies, et al.,
v. U.S. Department of Justice and you can read the opinion here.

Update: Jim at Unqualified Offerings has some excellent commentary on this.

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed to expedite the appeal of Government-proclaimed "enemy combatant" and alleged "dirty bomb" suspect Jose Padilla.

The case likely will be heard between October and the end of the year. Padilla has been held for a year in a South Carolina military brig without access to a lawyer and with no charges filed against him. He is a U.S. citizen.

The BBC reports on plans for a court and an exectution chamber at Camp Delta in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Major-General Geoffrey Miller told the BBC,

...there are also plans to build a permanent prison block for those convicted and sentenced and an execution chamber should any be sentenced to death. "We're getting ready so we won't be starting from scratch," he said.

So far none of the 680 detainees have been charged with a crime. They are all being held as "enemy combatants." Criminal cases are being prepared against ten of them. None have been allowed to see a lawyer or have access to the courts.

Human rights groups have criticised both the makeshift conditions at the prison camp and the lack of rights afforded to the detainees.

On the first anniversary of suspected "dirty bomber" Jose Padilla's detention in a military brig without access to counsel or charges, we recommend you read this speech by Judge Learned Hand from May 21, 1944 at the "I Am an American Day" ceremony held in Central Park, New York City. "Many thousands of people were present, including a large number of new citizens. Learned Hand's brief address was so eloquent and so moving that the text immediately became the object of wide demand. It was quickly printed and reprinted and also put into anthologies."

Here is but one great line:

Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it.

Jose Padilla, an American citizen, has been branded an "enemy combatant" and imprisoned for 13 months, 12 of which have been in sensory deprivation, all because of one man, Defense Department Advisor Michael Mobbs, and his two page declaration containing hearsay "intelligence."

[Received from Donald G. Rehkopf, Jr., Esq, co-chair of the Military Law Committee of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Our thanks to Donna Newman and Andrew Patel, lawyers for Jose Padilla, for never giving up and continuing to fight for Mr. Padilla's rights.]

Here's the latest from today's Miami Herald.

Even in the face of the negative Inspector-General's Report on the treatment of detainees, Ashroft continues to defend his policies.

Others tell a different story:

...at a forum on Capitol Hill, one immigrant after another told of the toll that they said the fight against terrorism had taken on them. After Sept. 11, 2001, the authorities questioned, jailed or deported hundreds of people who had no known ties to terrorism.

If we trample the Constitution in the name of security," Jeanne Butterfield, director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and a participant in the forum, warned, "the terrorists have won."

The report concluded that the department's arrests of 762 illegal immigrants, most of them Middle Eastern, were plagued with "significant problems." Many of the suspects were left in jail cells for weeks or months without being formally charged, with some suffering physical and verbal abuse from their jailers, investigators found, and few of the detainees proved to have ties to terrorists, investigators found.

The inspector general, Glenn A. Fine, found that the problems were rooted in part in an unstated policy that allowed the F.B.I. to keep the suspects in detention unless it was established that they were not tied to terrorism.

At his press conference today,

....Mr. Ashcroft did not mention the inspector general's findings, and he left the briefing room without answering questions about the report.

Also in denial was Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, who said,

the report showed that the Justice Department "scrupulously followed the law, while aggressively protecting innocent Americans from future terrorist attacks."

Update: The ACLU is considering lawsuits on behalf of the rounded-up immigrants as a result of the report. [link via Cursor.]

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), through President Lawrence Goldman, issued the following press release today regarding the Inspector General's report concerning treatment of post-9/11 detainees:

Without checks and balances, fairness is elusive

Inspector General report on post-9/11 detentions highlights result of denial of effective oversight

Washington D.C.—In response to yesterday's release of a report on the treatment of post-9/11 detainees by the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Justice, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers president Lawrence Goldman issued the following statement:

"This is what happens when the checks and balances of a democratic system of justice-- the press, the courts, and lawyers for the accused--are excluded.

"Where normally scrutiny by the media, presentation of exculpatory information by defense counsel, and assessment of evidence by judges minimizes wrongful detentions, in this case the Justice Department fought all three oversight mechanisms tooth and nail. Instead, the DOJ asked the American people to trust it to do justice. Its own Inspector General's report demonstrates that government in secret does not foster justice.

"The clear lesson is that the government, in its understandable and laudable resolve to protect our security, cannot be relied on to protect our basic rights and liberties. Public scrutiny and the protections of our court system are necessary to ensure elemental fairness."

Bad news for civil liberties:

"The Supreme Court gave the Bush administration a major legal victory in the war on terrorism Tuesday, rejecting a challenge to secret deportation hearings held for hundreds of foreigners detained after the Sept. 11 attacks."

"The court declined to hear an appeal from New Jersey newspapers seeking information about the detainees, but attorneys for the newspapers said they still hoped the administration would change its policy. The Supreme Court has been told the policy is being reviewed and probably will be revised."

"The court's refusal to intervene was the third such victory for the government in Sept. 11 cases. Like the others, Tuesday's action was not a ruling on the merits of the case. "

The media outlets had argued:

...the public deserves to know ``how, and how fairly, its government uses the power of detention and deportation.'' ``That is especially true at this moment, when the government itself has expressly drawn a link between deportation proceedings and the war on terrorism and has frequently cited the number of non-citizens it has detained as evidence of the investigation's progress,'' they told justices.

The case is North Jersey Media Group v. Ashcroft, 02-1289.
.

We file this under the "How Other's See Us" category. We think it shines a bright light on an issue that too many Americans believe doesn't affect them--that of military tribunals. After all, who really cares about the nameless, faceless, middle-eastern men held in captivity in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for 18 months? Not too many people here, but fortunately, the rest of the world is watching.

The Australian Herald Sun reports that the U.S. is planning to turn the Guantanamo Bay prison camp into a death camp.

THE US has floated plans to turn Guantanamo Bay into a death camp, with its own death row and execution chamber. Prisoners would be tried, convicted and executed without leaving its boundaries, without a jury and without right of appeal, The Mail on Sunday newspaper reported yesterday.

The plans were revealed by Major-General Geoffrey Miller, who is in charge of 680 suspects from 43 countries, including two Australians.... General Miller said building a death row was one plan. Another was to have a permanent jail, with possibly an execution chamber.

The Mail on Sunday reported the move is seen as logical by the US, which has been attacked worldwide for breaching the Geneva Convention on prisoners of war since it established the camp at a naval base to hold alleged terrorists from Afghanistan.

But it has horrified human rights groups and lawyers representing detainees. They see it as the clearest indication America has no intention of falling in line with internationally recognised justice. The US has already said detainees would be tried by tribunals, without juries or appeals to a higher court. Detainees will be allowed only US lawyers.

....American law professor Jonathan Turley, who has led US civil rights group protests against the military tribunals planned to hear cases at Guantanamo Bay, said: "It is not surprising the authorities are building a death row because they have said they plan to try capital cases before these tribunals. "This camp was created to execute people. The administration has no interest in long-term prison sentences for people it regards as hard-core terrorists."

Thanks to R. Striker for sending this our way.

The BBC is reporting that a Pakistani man, formerly held as a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay and recently freed, has said he was given injections to make him talk.

Shah Mohammad was released earlier this month and is now back in Pakistan after months in custody, suspected of links with Islamic militants.

Mr. Shah alleged that the Americans had given him injections and tablets prior to interrogations. "They used to tell me I was mad," the 23-year-old told the BBC in his native village in Dir district near the Afghan border. "I was given injections at least four or five times as well as different tablets. I don't know what they were meant for."

Mr. Shaw, who was not in the military, but was working as a salaried bread baker for the Taliban, had this to say about his transport to Guantanamo and the conditions there:

Before boarding the plane our hands and feet were tied and duct tape was stuck across our mouths, blindfolds were placed on our eyes and devices were shoved into our ears. "Our hair and beards were shaved off," he said.

Mr Shah said conditions at Guantanamo were appalling to begin with. "We were not allowed to pray and little food was served. But later things improved," he said.

[link via balasubramania]

Following Secretary of State Colin Powell's call to move up the release of prisoners at Guantanamo, Defense officials announced today that two dozen will be released. The officials deny that Powell's request had an impact on the release decision.