Quizas ... Quizas ... Quizas – Indeed

In a prior article, the quandary about finally ending the travesty of the US Military Guantanamo Bay [GITMO] Prison Camp was put forward. Perhaps, indeed! Consider this recent news release:

June 23, 2008 - Washington, DC - A federal appeals court for the first time has rejected the military's designation of a Guantanamo detainee as an enemy combatant.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned as "invalid" a military tribunal's conclusion that prisoner Huzaifa Parhat is an enemy combatant.

The court directed the Pentagon either to release or transfer Parhat or to hold a new tribunal hearing "consistent with the court's opinion."

To put a finer point on the subject, the US military had recommended the release of this prisoner as a possible mistaken imprisonment as early as 2003. Yet the man has remained in jail for over six years because of the arrogance of the Bush Administration and its failure to admit that its policies have been wrong, or at least incorrectly applied in at least some cases. By the standards and “logic” apparently applied by the military authorities under the direction of the Bush Administration, any person who has attended training at the US School of the Americas could or should be held in prison indefinitely and labeled an “enemy combatant.” Parhat had attended a paramilitary training camp because of his desire to support a group that opposes China’s domination of a traditional ethnic region and its people –Uighurs. Parhat claimed he did not know who or what group ultimately funded the camp, but that he never was a member or even involved in any way with the Taliban or the struggle in Afghanistan. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the US military knew this. The evidence showed this to be true. Yet they held him anyway.

Now the more proper role of the US court system has been partially restored and Parhat had the chance to appeal his denomination as “enemy combatant.” the Federal court ruled that the designation was invalid after reviewing the evidence. This process has done absolutely no violence to the “national security” of the United States. It has, however, shown that abuses of Constitutional and international human rights can be addressed and corrected, if the court system is allowed to function as it was intended.

Perhaps the country will begin to see and believe that you cannot save a democracy or a country by destroying or ignoring the very fundamental principles upon which it was founded. Perhaps the sad saga of GITMO can move toward an ending, with the help and not so gentle prodding of the US courts applying principles of the Constitution.