The military trials against US-held detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba will not be affected by a Supreme Court ruling that the detainees have the right to appeal in US civilian courts, US Attorney General Michael Mukasey said yesterday.
Mukasey, speaking at a G8 meeting of justice and home affairs ministers in Tokyo, said he was disappointed with the decision because it would lead to “hundreds” of detention cases being referred to federal district court.
“I think it bears emphasis that the court’s decision does not concern military commission trials, which will continue to proceed,” he said.
“Instead it addresses the procedures that the Congress and the president put in place to permit enemy combatants to challenge their detention,” Mukasey said.
“Obviously we’re going to comply with the decision, we’re going to study both the decision itself and whether any legislation or any other action may be appropriate,” he said.
A divided US Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that foreign detainees held for years at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba have the right to appeal to US civilian courts to challenge their indefinite imprisonment without charges. It was a stinging rebuke to US President George W. Bush.
Bush, in Rome on Thursday, said he strongly disagreed with the decision — the third time the court has repudiated him on the detainees — and suggested he might seek yet another law to keep terror suspects at the prison camp “so we can safely say to the American people, ‘We’re doing everything we can to protect you.’”
“It was a deeply divided court, and I strongly agree with those who dissented,” he said.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the 5-4 high court majority, acknowledged the terrorism threat the US faces, but he declared, “The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times.”
In a blistering dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia said the decision “will make the war harder on us. It will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed.”
Kennedy said federal judges could ultimately order some detainees to be released, but he also said such orders would depend on security concerns and other circumstances. The ruling itself will not result in any immediate releases.
The decision, however, also cast doubt on the future of the military war crimes trials that 19 detainees, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other alleged Sept. 11 plotters, are facing so far. The Pentagon has said it plans to try as many as 80 men held at Guantanamo.
Human rights groups and many Democratic members of Congress celebrated the ruling as affirming the nation’s commitment to the rule of law. Several Republican lawmakers called it a decision that put foreign terrorists’ rights above the safety of the US public.
PLA MANEUVERS: Although Beijing has yet to formally announce military drills, its coast guard vessels have been spotted near and around Taiwan since Friday The Taiwanese military is on high alert and is closely monitoring the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) air and naval deployments after Beijing yesterday reserved seven airspace areas east of its Zhejiang and Fujian provinces through Wednesday. Beijing’s action was perceived as a precursor to a potential third “Joint Sword” military exercise, which national security experts said the PLA could launch following President William Lai’s (賴清德) state visits to the nation’s three Pacific allies and stopovers in Hawaii and Guam last week. Unlike the Joint Sword military exercises in May and October, when Beijing provided detailed information about the affected areas, it
CHINA: The activities come amid speculation that Beijing might launch military exercises in response to Lai’s recent visit to Pacific allies The Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday said China had nearly doubled the number of its warships operating around the nation in the previous 24 hours, ahead of what security sources expect would be a new round of war games. China’s military activities come amid speculation Beijing might organize military drills around the nation in response to President William Lai’s (賴清德) recent visit to Pacific allies, including stops in Hawaii and Guam, a US territory. Lai returned from the week-long trip on Friday night. Beijing has held two rounds of war games around Taiwan this year, and sends ships and military planes
Five flights have been arranged to help nearly 2,000 Taiwanese tourists return home from Okinawa after being stranded due to cruise ship maintenance issues, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications announced yesterday. China Airlines Ltd (中華航空), and EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) have arranged five flights with a total of 748 additional seats to transport 1,857 passengers from the MSC Bellissima back to Taiwan, the ministry said. The flights have been scheduled for yesterday and today by the Civil Aviation Administration, with the cruise operator covering all associated costs. The MSC Bellissima, carrying 4,341 passengers, departed from Keelung on Wednesday last week for Okinawa,
‘UNITED FRONT’: Some Taiwanese industry leaders had not initially planned to attend, but later agreed to do so after Beijing threatened them, a source said China hopes to rebuild its supply chain by wooing Taiwanese businesses at this year’s Cross-Strait CEO Summit (CSCS) to be held today in the Chinese city of Xiamen, a source said yesterday. This year’s summit would focus on “building a cross-strait industrial chain in the new era and promoting cross-strait economic integration and development,” promotional materials for the event said. The aim is to encourage Taiwanese businesspeople who have exited the Chinese market to return and invest there as a means of countering various technology export controls that China has been encountering, the source said. Former premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) and
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