Federal Judge Orders Release of Five Guantanamo Detainees

by Damozel |  In a habeas corpus case which looked at the administration's evidence for the detention of five Algerians, Judge Richard J. Leon of the Federal District Court in DC---a Bush appointee--- administered what The New York Times calls "a sharp setback" to the Bush administration by ruling they were held unlawfully.

Setback?  Setback?  That's a strange phrase to use now that the Bush administration is on the way out and these Algerians have been imprisoned now for how long?  "Seven years."  That's seven--count 'em---seven years of being unlawfully detained by our government.  

The judge...said the government’s secret evidence in the case had been weak: what he described as “a classified document from an unnamed source” for its central claim against the men, with little way to measure credibility. “To rest on so thin a reed would be inconsistent with this court’s obligation,” Judge Leon said. He urged the government not to appeal and said the men should be released “forthwith.”

“To rest on so thin a reed would be inconsistent with this court’s obligation,” Judge Leon said. He urged the government not to appeal and said the men should be released “forthwith.” (NYT)

The Washington Post describes the Judge's plea to the government as "an unusual moment."

"Seven years of waiting for a legal system to give them an answer . . . in my judgment is more than enough," he said. He urged the government "to end this process."

Laura Rozen comments:  "In other words, the judge, not exactly a jurist most predisposed toward the defense, emotionally requested that the government let these five fellows, who were detained in the first place under suspicious circumstances, go after many years of unjustified imprisonment."

"For a judge like Leon to order their release from detention is significant because the government has long maintained the evidence it had was more than sufficient to justify the detentions," said Scott L. Silliman, a national security law professor at Duke University. "This is a clear warning shot to the government. . . . These are probably not the last detainees to be ordered released."

President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to close Guantanamo Bay, but the Bush administration is not likely to drop the legal fight. A Justice Department spokesman issued a statement that said officials disagree with Leon's order and are weighing their options....

Attorneys for the Algerians said they would like the men returned to their families in Bosnia, where they were legally living when they were captured. Bosnian officials have indicated they would take them back and have said their own investigation has cleared them of connections to terrorism. (WaPo).

Judge Leon determined that the sixth Algerian was lawfully held.  "[H]e was a facilitator for Al Qaeda, arranging travel for others to fight the United States, and planned to become a fighter himself."

Sullivan sums it up.

Does anyone now believe what Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld have stated as fact: that their administration captured the right people, treated them humanely and brought them to justice? They failed on all three counts. They committed, to paraphrase Talleyrand, a crime and a mistake. We are all less safe as a result.

And Larisa Alexandrovna underlines the moral significance of this decision and its further implications.

Nice going Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, at al. Your war on terror is not only a dangerous joke for the national security of the United States, but is absolutely a series of war crimes that should be addressed at the Hague....

Yes, you read that right. 5 people were held in a secret military prison and tortured for 7 years based on a single document of unknown origin...

This is really frightening when you consider the reality that we have no idea how many people are being held all over the world and that evidence against them may be nothing more than a piece of paper from an unknown source.

Finally, The Heretik:

The Kafka will continue. Here we are seven years later. And only now the facts, whatever they are, are now determined?

It takes your breath away. 

Memeorandum has more.

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