Justice Extends To Bagram, Guantanamo's Dark Mirror

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Since coming to power in a blaze of reforming glory, promising to close Guantánamo within a year, to stop the CIA from running offshore torture prisons, and to restore the Geneva Conventions to prisoners seized in wartime, the Obama administration has proceeded to make a number of poor decisions in relation to its predecessors' reviled "War on Terror" policies.

One was the decision to invoke the state secrets privilege to quash a lawsuit against Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen for its role as the CIA's travel agent in a case brought by a number of prisoners subjected to "extraordinary rendition," although this was understandable if the floodgates were not to be opened with regard to everyone involved in the Bush administration's lawless policies rather than, say, the senior officials who authorized the crimes.

Another, I believe, was the refusal to substantially redefine the terms of reference for "enemy combatants," while the administration was scoring a propaganda point by dropping the use of the term.

There are, of course, many challenges to come -- not least, the question of prosecutions for senior officials (from President Bush down), which Obama is clearly unwilling to tackle -- but so far the poorest decision came in February, when, in its first response to habeas corpus claims filed on behalf of four prisoners held in the U.S. prison at Bagram airbase, the Justice Department responded to a request by District Court Judge John D. Bates, asking if the new administration would like to review the position maintained by the Bush administration -- essentially, that the prisoners in Bagram have no rights -- by stating simply, in a one-paragraph response, "This Court's Order of January 22, 2009 invited the Government to inform the Court by February 20, 2009, whether it intends to refine its position on whether the Court has jurisdiction over habeas petitions filed by detainees held at the United States military base in Bagram, Afghanistan. Having considered the matter, the Government adheres to its previously articulated position."

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