Judge Blocks the Transfer of 13 Detainees From Guantánamo

- A federal judge on Saturday prohibited the government from transferring 13 Yemeni prisoners from the military's detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, until a hearing could be held on their lawyers' fear that they might face torture if sent to another country.

The ruling by Judge Rosemary M. Collyer of United States District Court was the first action on at least five emergency petitions filed since Friday by lawyers for Guantánamo detainees after they learned from news reports that the government is seeking to transfer hundreds of prisoners to their home countries.

"We're relieved," said Marc Falkoff, a lawyer for the Yemenis. "If they were moved, the jurisdiction of the court over the case would effectively be dissolved."
...
The judge's order puts at least a temporary roadblock in the way of the administration's plans to transfer at least half of the 540 detainees at Guantánamo to prisons in other countries, chiefly Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Yemen.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/13/politics/13gitmo.html?

I dont understand the story. Do they want to stay at Gitmo??

a lot of them have been there since 2001, and have been abused in
many ways including long periods of solitary confinement, they know that if they are transferred not to their home countries but to countries friendly to torture, they could be imprisoned and tortured for the rest of their lives. Many of these individuals are just
low level enemy combatants, they want their cases formally reviewed in US so that they can be released.

authorities in their own countries. At least one reason to do so, goes their lawyers' reasoning, is to allow them to be tortured for information in a place where torture is common. That's the danger. If it is a matter of staying at Gitmo and therefore being under some international oversight (the Red Cross and red Crescent, for instance), or being transferred to the torture regimes of Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan, I suspect most people would prefer to stay under international oversight. So, yes, they do want to stay at Gitmo until an actiual resolution to their cases can be decided UNDER THE RULE OF LAW, rather than at the hands of outlaw secret police of outlaw regimes affiliated with the current US administration.

Point being, after Abu Ghraib it is probably increasingly difficult to operate in the dark at Gitmo, so this strategy of transfer to very dark places indeed emerges.

It seems crazy to want to stay at Gitmo, yes, but look at the alternative.

Your questions brings up a lot of good points ... especially the main question of how bad are these other places if Gitmo is considered better than them?

The countries that the U.S. sends prisoners to sets a "blind eye" on torture.

They don't want it getting out what happened to them in Gitmo. Remember, Rumsfeld has been personally sued by the ACLU recently over abuse allegations at Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, etc. If these people get sent to other countries, they're gone.

If they act in violation of one word of her order, she should put Gonzo in a cell until every one of them is in perfect compliance and telling her "Yes, Ma'am" and "No, Ma'am".

This was the brilliance of the Supreme Court ruling. It's power was subtle in that it did not comment on the injustices committed by the Administration, but quietly gave the federal courts jurisdiction.

Now this Administration is trying to take the prisoners and run with them. Only now is this Administration and its "lawyers" seeing what the courts saw long ago.

As the Mayor of Kabul sends his cronies in to the cell with their belts being unfastened.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/03/13/guantanamo.detainees.ap/index.html

Judge blocks Guantanamo detainees' transfer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal judge has blocked the government from transferring 13 Yemenis from the U.S. detention center for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, until a hearing is held on concerns the detainees may be mistreated in another country.

The judge's ruling temporarily blocks any plans by the government to transfer the detainees to prisons in other countries.

Lawyers for the Yemenis are worried the government will try to move them from the Guantanamo Bay facility to another country in order to "warehouse them in a prison, provide them with no legal process and, in effect, avoid the American court process altogether," Marc Falkoff, an attorney for the detainees, said Sunday.

U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer's ruling Saturday on an emergency petition blocks any attempt to move the Yemenis until a hearing is held on their lawyers' request for at least 30 days notice if their clients are to be transferred.

MORE

bush co-conspiritor, bush serfdom, us/bush puppet.