Ethics

Obama Defends Bush Policy on Bagram Prison

By Ed Brayton

Do not adjust your monitor. This is not a repeat. The Obama administration is defending yet another Bush administration position in the war on terror, arguing that the courts have no jurisdiction over military prisons overseas other than Guantanamo Bay.

The Obama administration, siding with the Bush White House, contended Friday that detainees in Afghanistan have no constitutional rights.

In a two-sentence court filing, the Justice Department said it agreed that detainees at Bagram Airfield cannot use U.S. courts to challenge their detention. The filing shocked human rights attorneys.

"The hope we all had in President Obama to lead us on a different path has not turned out as we'd hoped," said Tina Monshipour Foster, a human rights attorney representing a detainee at the Bagram Airfield. "We all expected better."

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on February 25, 2009 (boomark / email).