Topic: Habeas Corpus

Before the Kafka Law of Military Commissions

April 18, 2008 |

Today, another hearing ended in turmoil when a 47-year-old Sudanese man, Ibrahim al-Qosi, refused representation and declared he would boycott the military commission, before which he is charged with conspiracy and providing material support to terrorism. Al-Qosi told the judge, Air Force Col. Nancy Paul, that he has been waiting for this day for four years, that he does not recognize the lawfulness of the military commission, and that he “leaves the field for you to play as you wish.”

Today, the fragile and flawed system of military commissions produced a new episode in its Kafkaesque system of “justice” series. As in the famous Franz Kafka piece “Before the Law,” Al-Qosi has waited “to gain entry into the law” only to discover that this unjust system was created for him (and the others declared “unlawful alien enemy combatants” by the Bush administration). In the Kafka story, the man who waits at the door until he is about to die asks the doorkeeper why, even though everyone seeks the law, no one else has come in all the years. To this question the doorkeeper replies: “No one else can gain entry, since this entrance was assigned only to you. I’m going now to close it.” «Read the rest of this article»

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The resurrection of Habeas Corpus

By Bill Larson | January 24, 2007 |

We posted several articles in the past about the Republican Congress and the Bush Administration taking away the right of Habeas Corpus from American citizens in clear violation of the constitutional prohibitions against suspending it.

Nothing could be less American than a government that can indefinitely hold people in secret torture cells, take away their protections against horrific and cruel abuse, put them on trial based on evidence that they cannot see, sentence them to death based on testimony literally beaten out of witnesses, and then slam shut the courthouse door for any habeas petition, but that’s exactly what Congress just approved. - Christopher Anders, an ACLU Legislative Counsel

Here’s a video clip showing what a difference having a Democrat controlled House and Senate will do for you!

No more and never again!

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