Two influential US courts dealt a double blow to the Bush administration’s anti-terror policies on Thursday by ruling that the government was violating the civil rights of so-called ‘‘enemy combatants’’ held in a South Carolina Navy prison and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The findings were the strongest rebuke to date of the administration’s controversial policy of holding some suspects indefinitely without criminal charges and depriving them of access to lawyers. In one case, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City held that President George W. Bush does not have the power to detain a US citizen seized on US soil as an enemy combatant. In the case of New Yorker Jose Padilla, it said only the Congress can authorise such detentions and it ordered Padilla’s release within 30 days. Padilla has been in custody in the US for 19 months as a suspect in an alleged Al Qaeda plot to detonate a radioactive ‘‘dirty bomb’’. In the other case, the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that the US cannot imprison ‘‘enemy combatants’’ indefinitely at the US Navy base in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The court said such indefinite imprisonment was inconsistent with US laws and raised concerns under international law. ‘‘Even in times of national emergency it is the obligation of the Judicial Branch to ensure the preservation of our values and prevent the Executive Branch from running roughshod over the rights of citizens and aliens alike,’’ the Ninth Circuit panel said. ‘‘The US has subjected over 600 of these captives to indefinite detention, yet has failed to afford them any means to challenge their confinement, to object to the failure to recognise them as POWs, or even to advance claims of mistaken capture or identity,’’ it said. None of the nearly 660 prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay has yet been charged with any crimes. In Padilla’s case, the court ruled that Bush had exceeded his power by detaining a US citizen without Congressional authority. ‘‘Whereas here, the President’s power as Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces and the domestic rule of law intersect, we conclude that Congressional authorisation is needed to detain Americans on US soil.,’’ the court said. The Bush administration said it would seek a stay of the ruling.(Reuters)
