| 'Enemy Combatant' Loses Right to Lawyer, Feds Say |
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http://www.nydailynews.com/2002-06-20/News_and_Views/Beyond_the_City/a-154989.asp 'Enemy Combatant' Loses Right to Lawyer, Feds Say Thursday, June 20, 2002 The government argued yesterday in a legal filing that U.S. citizens who are declared enemy combatants have no right to an attorney and that federal courts have no right to interfere. The Justice Department is appealing a ruling by a federal judge in Norfolk, Va., allowing Yaser Esam Hamdi — a U.S.-born Saudi suspected of being a Taliban member — to meet with a public defender. "There is not right under the laws and customs of war for an enemy combatant to meet with counsel concerning his detention," the Justice Department wrote in a 46-page document filed yesterday. The filing goes on to say, "The court may not second-guess the military's enemy combatant determination." "This is really an astounding assertion of authority," David Cole, a Georgetown University law professor, told The Washington Post. "It's not just that you have no right to a lawyer, it's that you have no right to even have a hearing," he said. "If that is true, then there is really no limit to the President's power to label U.S. citizens as bad people and then have them held in military custody indefinitely." News Wire Service EDITORIAL: Let's say that someone in government is mad at you. And they accuse you of being a terrorist. Oh well, you say, I would be cleared by any court that would hear the case. Uh huh. What if you never get a hearing? What if you are not allowed counsel? That is what the government is arguing here. That if you are accused of being a terrorist, you will have no right to an attorney and the federal courts have no right to interfere. "This is really an astounding assertion of authority," David Cole, a Georgetown University law professor, told The Washington Post. "It's not just that you have no right to a lawyer, it's that you have no right to even have a hearing," he said. "If that is true, then there is really no limit to the President's power to label U.S. citizens as bad people and then have them held in military custody indefinitely." HOW MUCH LONGER CAN WE IGNORE WHAT IS BEING DONE TO US? |