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You probably have nothing to worry about when it
comes to your right to file a writ of habeas
corpus — that is, until someone in the
White House decides that he doesn’t like your friends.
A Peoria man, Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, found that
out the hard way in July 2003, when President George W. Bush ordered him
detained as a danger to U.S. security, alleging that the Bradley University
student was “closely associated with al Qaeda.”
Last month a federal appeals court decreed that a
writ of habeas corpus must be issued in al-Marri’s case, signaling a victory in
the fight to reinstate the rights of so-called enemy combatants to learn
the charges on which they’re being held.
The al-Marri ruling, however, will not immediately
affect the status of the 400-or-so prisoners still incarcerated by the
United States at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Those individuals, along with anyone else the
government might accuse of being an enemy fighter, lost the right to file
for the writ last year when Congress passed, and Bush signed, the Military
Commissions Act. Under an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill,
now on the floor of the U.S. Senate, that could change. “There’s still hope. Right now
we’re crossing our fingers, hoping the politics don’t get in
the way,” says Corey Owens, communications coordinator for the
Constitution Project, a Washington, D.C.-based social-justice-advocacy
organization. Owens does concede, nevertheless, that even if
supporters of the legislation could somehow wangle 60 votes, Bush has
indicated that he intends to veto the amendment. Springfield peace-and-justice activists have been
pushing members of the congressional delegation to repeal the Military
Commissions Act, arguing that the writ of habeas
corpus — the right of any person to
seek relief from unlawful detention — is fundamental to a free
society. “My sense is that if the Congress is true to
its belief in habeas corpus, the law will be overturned,” says Springfield activist
Diane Lopez Hughes, who participated in a vigil in June in recognition of
Torture Awareness Month. The amendment’s sponsors are U.S. Sens. Pat
Leahy, D-Vt., and Arlen Specter, R-Pa. Both Illinois senators, Dick Durbin and Barack Obama,
are co-sponsors.
Contact R.L. Nave at rnave@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Jul 12-18, 2007.
