0
WASHINGTON, Aug 9: A task force set up by the American Bar Association criticized on Friday how the Bush administration treats “enemy combatants” in the “war against terrorism”, calling for safeguards to protect the innocent and prevent possible abuses of power.
In a report released at the annual meeting of the nation’s largest lawyer association, the task force disagreed with American citizens being detained indefinitely without charges, without judicial review and without an attorney.
“The administration has not yet attempted to explain what procedures it believes should be required to assure that detentions are consistent with due process, American tradition and international law,” according to the 34-page report.
“It cannot be sufficient for a president to claim that the (government) can detain whomever it wants, whenever it wants, for as long as it wants, as long as the detention bears some relationship to a terrorist act once committed by somebody against the United States,” it said.
After the Sept 11 attacks the administration adopted a number of tactics that upset civil libertarians, including the detention at US military bases of Americans declared “enemy combatants.”
The two cases involve Yaser Esam Hamdi, a US-born Taliban prisoner who was captured in Afghanistan and is being held in Virginia, and Jose Padilla, who was arrested in Chicago and accused of plotting a radioactive “dirty bomb” attack on the United States. He is being held in South Carolina.
The six-member group — which includes defense attorneys, former government lawyers and a law professor — said there was danger of government overreaction and undue trespassing on individual rights.
SAFEGUARDS NEEDED: “While we must have the means to prevent more attacks like those of Sept. 11, we must also insure that there are sufficient safeguards to protect the innocent and prevent possible abuses of power,” the report said.
The group urged the administration to explain, more fully and formally than it has, the basis and scope of its authority to detain US citizens, especially Americans seized far from any recognized battlefield or combat zone.
The report asked the administration to answer a number of basic questions, such as what qualifies an individual as a combatant and whether any time limits apply to such detentions.
It also recommended that Congress establish clear standards and procedures for the detentions and provide regular oversight.
The group said US citizens should have access to judicial review to challenge their detentions and should be allowed access to lawyers.
“We have confidence that our nation’s lawyers can provide effective representation without breaching security,” the lawyers said.
They rejected the government’s concerns that access to lawyers may hurt the collection of intelligence or that the lawyers might be used by detainees to communicate with terrorists.
“Indefinite detention, denial of counsel and overly secret proceedings could tear at the Bill of Rights, the very fabric of our great democracy,” the report concluded. “We must get this right.”—Reuters
