Dahlia Lithwick in Slate comments on the ongoing Bush/Obama campaign to make sure alleged torture victims will never get their claims heard in U.S. courts.
This morning, and with the blessing of the Obama administration, the Supreme Court declined to revisit an appeals court ruling dismissing a lawsuit filed by four British citizens released from Guantanamo in 2004. The men sued former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and 10 military officials for alleged acts of torture and religious abuse. The Obama Justice Department urged the court not to hear the appeal, claiming the lower court got it right when it determined, among other things, that Guantanamo detainees were not “persons” for purposes of American law and that “torture is a foreseeable consequence of the military’s detention of suspected enemy combatants.” Lawyers for the detainees asked the court to hear the appeal because, “[l]eft in place, the court of appeals’ decision will be a final assertion of judicial indifference in the face of calculated torture and humiliation of Muslims in their religion.”
No luck. That means today yet another path to accountability for government-sanctioned torture was blocked at the starting gate. To be clear, it’s not that torture victims are losing these trials. They can’t even find their way into a courtroom. And, time after time, it’s the Obama administration barring the door.
In a conference call with reporters late last week, ACLU lawyers pointed out that, as of this month, not a single torture victim has had his day in court, and that no court has yet ruled on the legality of the Bush-era torture policies. Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU’s National Security Project, put it bluntly: “On every front, the [Obama] administration is actively obstructing accountability. This administration is shielding Bush administration officials from civil liability, criminal investigation and even public scrutiny for their role in authorizing torture.” Jaffer added that “The Bush administration constructed a legal framework for torture. Now the Obama administration is constructing a legal framework for impunity.”
Lithwick comments that the result of this consistent refusal to allow any other claims to reach court could be that the first person able to raise such claims in a contested trial will be KSM in his criminal trial.
