By Mike Whitney

Al-Jazeerah, September 12, 2005

"People will definitely die…Bobby Sands petitioned the British
government to stop the illegitimate internment of Irishmen without
trial…..Nobody should believe for one moment that my brothers here have less
courage." Binyam Mohammed, British prisoner at Guantanamo Bay

When Senate hearings convene this week for Supreme Court candidate, John
Roberts, let’s hope that they focus on the hunger strike taking place at
Guantanamo Bay. It was Robert’s ruling in Rumsfeld vs. Hamdan that hastened
a massive 200 man hunger-strike that is now in its second month and has
hospitalized at least 15 inmates. The prisoners are demanding that they be
given the opportunity to challenge the terms of their detention in a court
of law; a principle that Robert’s does not support. He ruled in the Hamdan
case that the president was not constrained by international law and that
“the Geneva Conventions do not create judicially enforceable rights.”
Roberts ignores the fact that the United States is a signatory of the
Geneva Conventions and must comply with its provisions for the humane
treatment of prisoners as well as offering prisoners the Convention’s
protection “until such time as their status has been determined by a
competent tribunal.” Rumsfeld’s hand-picked military courts do not meet
these requirements, and have been rejected by prominent legal organizations
and human rights groups alike.

Let’s be clear; the 500 prisoners in Guantanamo Bay are innocent. That
is not my contention, but the belief of everyone who still accepts the
fundamental principle of American jurisprudence, that men are “innocent
until proven guilty”. The inmates have been deprived of due process of law,
so we must presume that they are innocent. The language invented at the
Defense Dept; “terrorist”, “enemy combatant” “insurgent”, should not cloud
our reasoning or undermine our commitment to fair play. The prisoners should
be allowed to defend themselves according to internationally accepted
standards of justice.

Roberts does not believe that captives in the war on terror have any
rights whatsoever. His ruling in Rumsfeld vs. Hamdan confers absolute
authority on the President to imprison suspects indefinitely without any
legal process in place to challenge their imprisonment. But, if this is
true, than why do we need courts or judges at all? Why not simply resolve
these issues by executive fiat?

Robert’s ruling has earned him an appointment to the Supreme Court; a
souvenir for endorsing the supreme powers of the president. But, his
ambition comes at a cost. 200 or more victims of his verdict are presently
starving themselves to death demanding the right to have their cases heard
in court. The scene at Guantanamo has been described as “dire” by defense
attorneys for the detainees with gruesome descriptions of prisoners
“vomiting blood or collapsing in their cells”. The Defense Dept. has tried
to conceal the details of the hunger-strike and has prevented the media and
the Red Cross from visiting the prisoners.

Guantanamo needs to be opened up so that we can see the consequences of
Robert’s judicial philosophy. If Robert’s is willing to rubber-stamp a
policy that promotes the cruel and inhuman treatment of prisoners then the
public should be aware of it.

Roberts has argued that, “The president’s authority under the laws of our
nation to try enemy combatants is a vital part of the global war on terror.”
Fine.

Roberts should be given every opportunity to defend his theories on
justice as long as the sick and emaciated victims of his philosophy are
paraded through the Senate Rotunda for everyone to observe.

American justice is an oxymoron. Under Bush, there is neither justice nor
a system; just the willful conduct of bullies who act according to the most
cynical impulses. Roberts is the embodiment of the present paradigm; a man
whose adult life has been devoted to secret organizations, like the
Federalist Society, whose sole purpose is the dismantling of legal
protections and civil liberties for the common man. He is the poster-boy of
the new world order.

The Muslim prisoners who are resisting this regime of lawlessness; some
who have even ripped the feeding tubes from their arms; are heroes in the
truest sense of the word. They have put their own lives on the line for a
just cause; demanding that they be treated with the same respect and dignity
deserving of every man. Now, they face an agonizing death fighting for the
very same principles that are written into the Constitution and the Bill of
Rights.

They’ve earned our admiration, and they have it.