Keeping up with the News on Guantanamo and Rendition

It can be difficult to keep up with the news these days! As the fallout over the new DoJ torture memos continues, other legal developments in the Bush Administration’s war on terror continue. This week, the Administration filed a brief to the Supreme Court arguing that detainees at Guantanamo “enjoy more procedural protections than any other captured enemy combatants in the history of warfare.” For HRF’s take on just how far-fetched that assertion is, go here.

Meanwhile, the reaction to the Supreme Court’s rejection of the El-Masri rendtion case has been negative on both sides of the country. The New York Times calls it a Supreme Disgrace. And the L.A. Times says that the United States still has an obligation to make amends – and Congress has an obligation to shut down the CIA program.

Whatever the explanation, the court’s refusal to hear El-Masri’s appeal shouldn’t be the end of the story. This country has an obligation to apologize to — and compensate — victims of an anti-terrorist operation gone awry. And judicial inaction actually strengthens the case for action by Congress to prevent the CIA from committing such outrages in the future. Even when there is no case of mistaken identity, the United States shouldn’t be spiriting suspects away to secret prisons abroad where they can be subjected to “enhanced interrogation techniques.”

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Published on October 11, 2007

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