Reactions to story from The Washington Post

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  Judge Orders Release of Five Gitmo Detainees

  http://www.theagitator.com/2008/11/20/judge-orders-release-o...
  47 days ago in The Agitator · Authority: 587

  From the Washington Post: For the first time, a federal judge today ordered the release of enemy combatants from the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, ruling that the government had provided insufficient evidence to continue their detentions. The decision came in the case of six Algerians who were detained in Bosnia after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and have been held at the military prison in Cuba for nearly seven years. U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon, a Bush appointee, ruled that five of the men must be released “forthwith” and ordered the government to engage in diplomatic efforts to find them new homes. In an unusual move, Leon also urged the government not to appeal his ruling, saying “seven years of waiting for our legal system to give them an answer” was long enough. History won’t be kind to Bush’s handling of Gitmo. Even if the government doesn’t appeal, the problem will be finding a place to put all of the people wrongfully detained. Other countries don’t want them. And we can’t easily release them into the U.S., because even if they weren’t our enemies before they were detained and likely tortured, they sure as hell probably consider us an enemy now. And who could blame them?

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    Judge Orders 5 Gitmo Detainees Released

    http://www.stoptheaclu.com/archives/2008/11/20/judge-orders-...
    47 days ago in Stop The ACLU · Authority: 1,099

    I have asked a more elequent writer to post on this, so you may see more on this later. I just want to do a basic rundown and roundup of reactions on it. Washington Post: For the first time, a federal judge today ordered the release of enemy combatants
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  Federal judge orders Gitmo prisoners released

  http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=5417
  47 days ago in This ain’t Hell, but you can see it from here · Authority: 146

  Federal judge orders Gitmo prisoners released November 20th, 2008 This is why courts and law don’t work when fighting terrorists. From the Washington Post; The decision came in the case of six Algerians who were detained in Bosnia after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and have been held at the military prison in Cuba for nearly seven years. U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon, a Bush appointee, ruled that five of the men must be released “forthwith” and ordered the government to engage in diplomatic efforts to find them new homes. ad_icon In an unusual move, Leon also urged the government not to appeal his ruling, saying “seven years of waiting for our legal system to give them an answer” was long enough. In the case of the sixth Algerian, Belkacem Bensayah, Leon found that the government had met its evidentiary burden and could continue to hold him. Bensayah’s lawyers said he would appeal. The judge urged the government to not appeal his ruling. Why? Because the decision was specious. In the case of the Algerians, the government presented mostly classified evidence in closed hearings that its attorneys asserted proved the men planned to attack U.S. forces in Afghanistan. [...] Leon said the government did not provide enough credible and reliable evidence during a series of closed hearings to justify the detentions of the five Algerians…. The government did not provide enough information about the source to determine whether he or she was credible or reliable, Leon ruled. Funny how these guys kept their mission secret and only confided in a single incredible and unreliable witness. So secret, that the judge didn’t want to believe the witness or the evidence against them. The government ought to establish a half-way house for these five in the residence next to Judge Leon’s home - ya know, just to asimilate them into the real world since their long imprisonment. Posted by Jonn Lilyea in Legal, Liberals suck, Politics, Terror War
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  Judge Orders 5 Detainees To Be Released

  http://donklephant.com/2008/11/21/judge-orders-5-detainees-t...
  46 days ago in Donklephant · Authority: 376

  I still cant believe we justified holding people indefinitely without access to council or hope for trial. And the following case shows just how egregious that practice was since 4 out of the 5 men ordered released werent even enemy combatants. From
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  Cutting Them Loose

  http://right-thinking.com/index.php/weblog/comments/cutting_...
  46 days ago in Right-Thinking from the Left Coast · Authority: 56

  I think we can expect more of this in the future: For the first time, a federal judge ordered the release yesterday of detainees from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay after evaluating and rejecting government allegations that five men were
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  Judge Orders Release of Five Gitmo Detainees

  http://www.reason.com/blog/show/130196.html
  47 days ago in Hit & Run - Reason Magazine · Authority: 1,951

  From the Washington Post: For the first time, a federal judge today ordered the release of enemy combatants from the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, ruling that the government had provided insufficient evidence to continue their
• 

  Judge Orders 5 Gitmo Detainees Released

  http://www.stoptheaclu.com/archives/2008/11/20/judge-orders-...
  47 days ago in Stop The ACLU · Authority: 1,099

  I have asked a more elequent writer to post on this, so you may see more on this later. I just want to do a basic rundown and roundup of reactions on it. Washington Post: For the first time, a federal judge today ordered the release of enemy combatants
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  Judge orders Bush administration to release five Gitmo detainees.

  http://thinkprogress.org/2008/11/20/gitmo-detainees-released...
  47 days ago in Think Progress » Home Page · Authority: 6,595

  Judge orders Bush administration to release five Gitmo detainees. By Ryan Powers at 4:00 pm Judge orders Bush administration to release five Gitmo detainees.» A federal judge ordered today that five Algerian nationals detained at Guantanamo Bay should be
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  Judge Orders Release of Gitmo Detainees

  http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2008/11/judge_orders_rele...
  43 days ago in Dispatches from the Culture Wars · Authority: 583

  In the first hearing to result from the Supreme Court ruling in Boumediene that the district courts in the DC circuit had to grant habeas corpus rights to detainees held there and hold hearings on whether there was sufficient evidence to continue their detention, a federal judge has ordered the release of 5 Algerians held at Gitmo for 7 years. For the first time, a federal judge ordered the release yesterday of detainees from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay after evaluating and rejecting government allegations that five men were dangerous enemy combatants. The government had alleged that the men planned to travel to Afghanistan to attack U.S. forces. But U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon ruled that in a series of closed hearings in recent weeks, the Justice Department had not proved that five of the six Algerian detainees at the Cuban facility were enemy combatants under the government's own definition. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...
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  The Writ Revived

  http://libertydoesnotmarchabroad.blogspot.com/2008/11/writ-r...
  44 days ago in Liberty Does Not March Abroad · Authority: 1

  Last Thursday, Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted the writ of habeas corpus for five Guantanamo detainees, thus ordering their release (PDF Memorandum & Order). Judge Leon (wiki) is a George W. Bush appointee and had originally ruled that Guantanamo detainees do not have the right to file a habeas petition. He is probably the judge most likely to rule in favor of the government in this case. But after his earlier decision was overruled by the Supreme Court and remanded back to him for review, he ordered the government to produce evidence that would justify, by a preponderance of the evidence, the continued detention of the individuals before him. After reviewing classified evidence in closed court, he found insufficient reason to hold five of the six petitioners. The government was rebuked:"To allow enemy combatancy to rest on so thin a reed would be inconsistent with this Court's obligation under the Supreme Court's decision in Hamdi to protect petitioners from the risk of erroneous detention." (page 11, emphasis in original)In the oral reading of the order, Judge Leon took the unusual step of asking the government to not appeal the case and to release the petitioners forthwith:"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." (Washington Post, via Buck Naked Politics)

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