John McCain: Imprison and Torture the Innocent

John McCain called the recent Supreme Court decision to grant detainees in Guantanamo the right to habeas corpus "one of the worst decisions in the history of this country". They're "not citizens of this country," he said, and they're "bad people."

McClatchy news reports today that many of the men imprisoned in Guantanamo were innocent:

"He was not an enemy of the government, he was a friend of the government," a senior Afghan intelligence officer told McClatchy. Akhtiar was imprisoned at Guantanamo on the basis of false information that local anti-government insurgents fed to U.S. troops, he said.

An eight-month McClatchy investigation in 11 countries on three continents has found that Akhtiar was one of dozens of men — and, according to several officials, perhaps hundreds — whom the U.S. has wrongfully imprisoned in Afghanistan, Cuba and elsewhere on the basis of flimsy or fabricated evidence, old personal scores or bounty payments.

Innocent men pulled from their homes and families by American troops and held in prison for years - and likely tortured. They are finally granted the smallest possibility that their nightmares might finally end - and McCain calls it "one of the worst decisions in the history of this country."

What exactly are John McCain's beliefs regarding good government? Do they somehow include stealing innocent people from their homes and imprisoning them thousands of miles from those homes simply because they're "not citizens of this country" and because someone in the military told us they were "bad people"? Is habeas corpus, a bedrock of modern understandings of liberty and freedom and good government, a decoration, a table piece, something to be tossed aside in difficult times and put back only when everything's nice and easy again? Is that good government to him? is that good anything to him?

President McCain. Think of that. Think of the justices he'd appoint to the nation's highest courts.

Here's the story of 17 innocent men who have been in Guantanamo for more than six years. The U.S. military admits that they are innocent, that they were wrongly imprisoned - but John McCain would be perfectly happy to keep these innocent men in prison.

President McCain. We really, really, need to think about that.

Habeas Corpus: It's Alive! It's Alive!

And a flashback to Keith Olbermann on the Military Commissions Act from October, 2006.

First, MSNBC:

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that foreign terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay have rights under the Constitution to challenge their detention in U.S. civilian courts.

In its third rebuke of the Bush administration's treatment of prisoners, the court ruled 5-4 that the government is violating the rights of prisoners being held indefinitely and without charges at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. The court's liberal justices were in the majority.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the court, said, "The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times."

Now, Olbermann's Special Report from 10/18/06, just after the act passed Congress:



Adam B has a closer look at the decision, and says the suspension of habeas corpus actually goes back to the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005.