Related Article: Judge: Bagram prisoners can challenge detention |
By David G. Savage
Chicago Tribune
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration’s plan to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay grew more complicated Thursday, after a federal judge ruled that at least some of the long-term prisoners at the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan are entitled to the same legal rights as the Guantanamo detainees.
U.S. District Judge John Bates, a Bush appointee, said the prisoners who were shipped to Bagram from outside Afghanistan are “virtually identical” in legal terms to those who were sent to Guantanamo.
Therefore, these prisoners have the right to challenge their detention before a judge, Bates said. He cited the Supreme Court’s decision last year holding that the right to habeas corpus extended to the Guantanamo prison and concluded there was no reason not to extend the same legal status to those held at the military prison in Afghanistan.
Lawyers for the Bush and Obama administrations argued that Afghanistan was different because it is in the “theater of war” and near the battlefield. Traditionally, the right to habeas corpus, or legal redress, did not apply on the battlefield or in combat areas.
But Bates said that many of the Bagram prisoners were shipped there from other countries. They were not fighters who were captured in Afghanistan.
Thursday’s decision -- if it stands -- could mean that hundreds more prisoners could seek hearings in court to challenge the government’s basis for holding them. About 240 prisoners remained at Guantanamo when President Barack Obama took office. More than 600 are held at Bagram, and some have predicted that number would rise as the fighting in Afghanistan escalates. Lawyers for Human Rights Watch in New York downplayed the ruling, saying it would have no effect on the large number of Afghan prisoners who are Afghan nationals.
In his first days in office, Obama said he would close the Guantanamo prison within a year. His lawyers also said they would no longer call the detainees “enemy combatants.” However, the new administration has not spelled out what it will do with the foreign prisoners it now holds or how it will deal with newly captured suspected terrorists.
The facilities at the Afghan base were expanding in the past year under the Bush administration, leading some to predict that the Pentagon could resolve its Guantanamo problem by sending more prisoners to Bagram. A new 40-acre prison facility is to open there in September.
Justice Department and Pentagon officials had little to say about the ruling Thursday. Spokespeople said the new administration is taking 180 days to decide on its prison policy.
The government could appeal Bates’ ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, and past decisions indicate it would stand a good chance of winning there. The judges sided regularly with the Bush administration and rejected claims of legal rights for foreign prisoners. The Supreme Court has been closely split. Last year, a 5-4 majority ruled the Constitution gave the Guantanamo prisoners a right to go before a judge, but its opinion did not set a clear rule.
The justices said the Guantanamo prison was thousands of miles from a battlefield and on land controlled entirely by U.S. officials. It is not clear the five-member majority would view Bagram in just the same way.
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