WASHINGTON,
November 9 (Islamonline.net & News Agencies) - U.S. human rights
activists demanded Sunday, November 9, the U.S. Supreme Court to show
"where it stands" on civil liberties, asking it either to
weigh in soon on the legality of holding hundreds of people in the
notorious U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, or to remain
silent.
The
plaintiffs, including human rights organizations, diplomats, former
judges and retired military officers, believe the high court should
step in and declare that President George W. Bush's administration is
denying justice to approximately 650 men from 42 countries held
prisoners by the United States at the military camp, reported Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
A
ruling or silence from the Court "will be an important statement
either way," said lawyer Ira Robbins.
"At
least we will find out where the court stands and maybe they will make
an important statement protecting civil liberties," argued
Robbins, who is also an expert on the Supreme Court.
Michael
Ratner, a lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), said
the court should deliver its judgment in the next few days.
"We
are expecting the Supreme Court to take a stand. It could be in the
next few days," said Ratner, a famous human rights attorney.
They
believe that Bush administration's abuse of civil liberties under the
pretext of the so called "war on terrorism" will eventually
affect all Americans.
The
CCR has unsuccessfully argued in federal courts that the detainees
have a right to a lawyer and to appear before a judge.
Federal
courts have said that detainees at Guantanamo do not have the same
legal rights as prisoners held in the United States due to the legal
status and location of the base.
'Silent'
Even
if the nine justices of the Supreme Court decide to consider the
matter, it is difficult to predict how they will respond.
Chief
Justice William Rehnquist's book "All The Laws But One,"
1998, advocating the limitation of civil liberties during wartime, is
a case in point.
The
U.S. highest court may choose to remain silent, as it did during World
War II, refusing to make a statement on the detention of Japanese and
Japanese-Americans detained in prison camps in the United States.
The
Bush administration claims that the Guantanamo prisoners, most of them
captured in Afghanistan and Pakistan after the September 11, 2001
attacks, are "illegal combatants," not protected as
prisoners of war (PoWs) under the Geneva Conventions.
A
series of cases have now been filed with the Supreme Court on behalf
of 16 of the prisoners, including Kuwaitis, Australian and British
nationals.
