Habeas Update

Remember that abomination of a bill by Lindsay Graham to remove habeas corpus for detainees?

This from ThinkProgress:

According to Knight Ridder, the Senate voted to approve the Graham amendment “after an hour of debate.” It says much about the value that Senate conservatives have for our basic rights that they would roll them back after virtually zero deliberation.

One hour. Swell of them to devote an hour of precious Senate time to repeal a bit of law going back to the Magna Carta.

This is shameful.

From Firedoglake, who quotes this WaPo editorial written by a Gitmo attorney as an example of habeas, or lack of habeas corpus in action:

Adel is innocent. I don't mean he claims to be. I mean the military says so. It held a secret tribunal and ruled that he is not al Qaeda, not Taliban, not a terrorist. The whole thing was a mistake: The Pentagon paid $5,000 to a bounty hunter, and it got taken.

The military people reached this conclusion, and they wrote it down on a memo, and then they classified the memo and Adel went from the hearing room back to his prison cell. He is a prisoner today, eight months later. And these facts would still be a secret but for one thing: habeas corpus.

Only habeas corpus got Adel a chance to tell a federal judge what had happened. Only habeas corpus revealed that it wasn't just Adel who was innocent -- it was Abu Bakker and Ahmet and Ayoub and Zakerjain and Sadiq -- all Guantanamo "terrorists" whom the military has found innocent.

I'm wondering. Can anyone really explain to me the difference between the Bush administration and, oh, say the Soviet dictatorships of the 70's?