The Guantanamo offence

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.khaleejtimes.ae/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/editorial/2007/April/editorial_April15.xml§ion=editorial&col=

FIVE years of detention without trial is something that’s generally unheard of in the civilised world. However, that is what is happening at Guantanamo Bay. It is also that chances are as yet grim for men held there to get justice.

The name of the game is branding these men as likely “illegal enemy combatants”, who are suspected to be terrorists plotting against America. It is also that the passing of a heavily-criticised Military Commissions Act has only made the dispensation of justice more difficult.

There is a sharp difference between one who is suspected of having committed a wrong act, and one who is accused of it. Here are men who are simply suspects, against whom no case has been established despite long periods of investigations and interrogations.

Sections of the American media have come out strongly against this travesty of justice, arguing that “holding people without evidence or charges or trial is barbaric, as is denying them the right to challenge their detention in a real court”. Since both violate the Constitution, demands are that the Supreme Court should strike down the Military Commission Act and the Detainee Treatment Act.