[Dryerase] AGR Ashcroft Camps

[Shawn G]

Asheville Global Report
www.AGRNews.org

Ashcroft's detention camps for US citizens

By Liz Allen

Asheville, North Carolina, Aug. 27 (AGR)—  US citizens now may be subject to 
being labeled “enemy combatants” and placed in detention camps. The new 
category created and defined by the executive branch would deny citizens 
labeled “enemy combatant” basic rights afforded an ordinary criminal 
defendant or a foreigner facing a military tribunal, such Fifth Amendment 
rights as well as rights to due process.
A “high level” committee composed of the attorney general, secretary of 
defense and the director of the CIA would make recommendations to the 
president as to who gets the label. The Bush administration is laying the 
foundation to go beyond the system of checks and balances and allow only the 
executive branch, which includes the military, to have access to the 
detainees.
Currently, a special wing is being prepared in Goose Creek, South Carolina 
to hold 20 US citizens labeled as combatants. Attorney General John Ashcroft 
has announced his desire to see camps built solely for the purpose of 
detaining this new category of criminals. In the camps “enemy combatants” 
would be subjected to indefinite incarceration. Part of the purpose, 
justified in terms of the war on terrorism, is to facilitate the extraction 
of information. Newsweek quoted an “administrative official” explaining the 
current incarceration of Jose Padilla by saying, “If this guy thinks he 
might be there for 20 years with no recourse, he might just say, ‘OK, let’s 
talk.’” Padilla has been held as an “enemy combatant” on the Consolidated 
Naval Brig in Charleston, South Carolina since May 8th and is one of the 
cases currently being used to set precedent for legally denying the 
prisoners right to counsel.
The other case is that of Yaser Esam Hamdi who has been held at a Naval brig 
in Norfolk, VA since April 5. Hamdi’s case was heard earlier this month 
before Federal District Court Judge Robert G. Doumar to decide if Hamdi has 
the right to meet with his counsel. Throughout the trial the judge displayed 
overt disgust with the government’s position. Assistant to the solicitor 
general, Gregory Garre, told the judge Hamdi had been afforded regular 
meetings with a brig commander and a chaplain, to which Doumar snapped, “He 
just can’t meet with a lawyer.” Mr. Garre claimed that courts “have a role” 
in deciding what happens with the prisoners, but that role is more for the 
president.
The government’s argument relied on a two page statement, written by Michael 
Mobbs, a special advisor to the Defense Department, known as the “the Mobbs 
declaration.” The document served as the basis for determining Hambi’s 
status as an “enemy combatant.” Finding the document vague and lacking in 
defining what criteria determines enemy combatant status; Judge Doumar 
explained, “I’m challenging everything in the Mobbs declaration. If you 
think I don’t understand the utilization of words, you are sadly mistaken.”
The court decided in Hambi’s favor; however, the Bush administration has 
appealed it to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, a historically 
conservative court, where it is now awaiting reconsideration.
Both Hamdi and Padilla are United States citizens and there is evidence of 
their innocence. Ashcroft claimed Padilla was involved in “an unfolding 
terrorist plot to attack the United States by exploding a radioactive dirty 
bomb,” but government officials who are close to the case now report there 
is no evidence a plot was under way. Hamdi’s father has petitioned Congress, 
asserting his son’s innocence and pointing out that he had been in Pakistan 
for less than two months prior to September 11, not long enough to receive 
any military training.
The American Bar Association has put out a resolution and a preliminary 
report by the Task Force on the Treatment of Enemy Combatants, condemning 
the Bush administration’s “enemy combatant” policies. The ABA says the 
current policies are in violation of the right to judicial review and Act 
4001 of the United States Criminal Code, which provides “no citizen shall be 
imprisoned or otherwise detained by the United States except pursuant to an 
Act of Congress. ”
The ABA also condemns the action on the basis of international law, 
including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Body of 
Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or 
Imprisonment, which include the right to legal counsel.


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