- The United States has given two inmates at its controversial
Guantanamo detention centre the right to a lawyer, suggesting a softening
of its hard line in its war on terror.
-
- "The administration is clearly responding to overwhelming
criticism, both within and outside the United States, over its policies,"
particularly failing to allow legal representation to detainees at the
US naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba, said Jonathan Turley, a George Washington
University law professor.
-
- And "the response is rather belated and modest given
the level and scope of the criticism," Turley stressed, arguing the
US government has not had a coherent policy.
-
- The Pentagon or the first time on Wednesday announced
that a detainee at Guantanamo, Australian David Hicks, would get a military
attorney. Others could follow, experts say.
-
- In Sydney Thursday, the civilian lawyer for Hicks said
he hopes to begin negotiating a plea bargain to get his client out of a
Guantanamo as early as next week. The Australian lawyer, Stephen Kenny,
said he would leave for the Guantanamo Bay base in Cuba next week.
-
- Hicks, who was captured fighting with the Taliban in
Afghanistan in late 2001, has not yet been charged with any crime.
-
- The appointment of a military lawyer to represent him
however indicates that a move to put him on trial could be imminent.
-
- Also Wednesday the Pentagon authorized a US citizen of
Saudi descent who was held in Guantanamo and then transferred to a military
prison in the United States once his nationality was confirmed, to have
legal representation.
-
- The measure concerning Yaser Esam Hamdi, captured in
Afghanistan in late 2001, should not be considered precedent-setting, the
Defense Department says, noting it was a discretionary move.
-
- "The administration has not said that either of
these men are entitled to a lawyer, rather they've said that they are going
to give them lawyers, as a discretionary matter, like they're deciding
to do them a favor," Turley said.
-
- "The administration is realizing that its legal
position is far too extreme to be sustained on appeal," he added.
-
- Michael Ratner, an attorney hired by relatives of several
Guantanamo detainees and president of the Center for Constitutional Rights,
said the government's shift on the Hami case comes amid its concerns that
the Supreme Court will weight in on the issue.
-
- A number of recent court decisions have run counter to
the administration's anti-terror policies, increasingly seen in some quarters
as running roughshod over individual liberties.
-
- A federal appeals court in San Francisco on Wednesday
ruled a 1996 antiterror law was unconstitutional. It allows those convicted
of helping to finance or train a terrorist group to be sentenced to life
imprisonment.
-
- And two architects of the "Patriot Act" approved
after the September 11 strikes on US targets, Viet Dinh and Michael Chertoff,
recently left the Justice Department publicly criticizing what they see
as its weaknesses.
-
- More than 660 people from about 40 countries are being
held at Guantanamo. The United States does not consider them prisoners
of war and has held them indefinitely without setting trial dates.
-
- Meanwhile, the New York-based rights watchdog group Amnesty
International urged Washington not to repatriate to China more than 12
ethnic Uighur prisoners believe to be held in Guantanamo.
-
- The men were reportedly training in Afghanistan with
Uighur groups seeking independence or greater autonomy from China in the
Xinjiang region.
-
- Any Uighurs suspected of "separatist or terrorist"
activities in China could be at risk of serious human rights violations,
Amnesty said.
-
- Amnesty does not, however, suggest where the Uighur detainees
should be sent.
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