Supreme Court warns Bush over detainee
By GINA HOLLAND
A DIVIDED Supreme Court yesterday turned back a challenge to the Bush
Administration's wartime detention powers, rejecting an appeal from U.S.
citizen Jose Padilla, who until recently had been held as an enemy combatant
without traditional legal rights.
Chief Justice John Roberts and two others were concerned about the U.S.
Government's handling of Mr Padilla and said they would be watching to
ensure he receives the protections "guaranteed to all federal criminal
defendants".
Three other justices wanted the nine-member court to consider whether
President George W. Bush overstepped his authority by ordering Mr Padilla's
detention.
Mr Padilla had become a symbol of the Administration's aggressive pursuit of
terror suspects after September 11, 2001. The former Chicago gang member and
convert to Islam was held in a military prison for three-and-a-half years,
part of that time without access to lawyers.
His supporters wanted the Supreme Court to use his case to declare that
Americans cannot be arrested on U.S. soil and held incommunicado.
Justices appeared poised to do that, but with Mr Padilla's appeal pending,
the Government abruptly changed its strategy.
Prosecutors brought criminal charges in Florida last year, and now Mr
Padilla, 35, has what his lawyers sought all along - traditional legal
rights as part of the federal court system.
But judges were angered by the Administration's change in strategy. Judge J.
Michael Luttig said the Administration risked its "credibility before the
courts" and left the impression that Mr Padilla had been held in military
custody "by mistake".
Deborah Pearlstein, director of law and national security at Human Rights
First, said: "This is a warning shot for the Administration. It would be
hard for the Administration not to see it that way."
Mr Padilla was arrested in 2002 after a trip to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The Government alleged that he had returned to detonate a radiological
"dirty bomb" in the U.S.
The criminal charges do not match that claim. He is accused of being part of
a terror support cell that provided recruits, money and supplies to Islamic
extremists worldwide. He has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to be tried
in September.
http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,18712640%255E912,00.html
What kind of joke is Bush? Americans are fed up.
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