Via Prison Planet.com » Commentary
Glenn Greenwald
Salon
May 23, 2010
Few issues highlight Barack Obama’s extreme hypocrisy the way that Bagram does. As everyone knows, one of George Bush’s most extreme policies was abducting people from all over the world — far away from any battlefield — and then detaining them at Guantanamo with no legal rights of any kind, not even the most minimal right to a habeas review in a federal court.
Back in the day, this was called “Bush’s legal black hole.” In 2006, Congress codified that policy by enacting the Military Commissions Act, but in 2008, the Supreme Court, in Boumediene v. Bush, ruled that provision unconstitutional, holding that the Constitution grants habeas corpus rights even to foreign nationals held at Guantanamo. Since then, detainees have won 35 out of 48 habeas hearings brought pursuant to Boumediene, on the ground that there was insufficient evidence to justify their detention.
Immediately following Boumediene, the Bush administration argued that the decision was inapplicable to detainees at Bagram — including even those detained outside of Afghanistan but then flown to Afghanistan to be imprisoned. Amazingly, the Bush DOJ — in a lawsuit brought by Bagram detainees seeking habeas review of their detention — contended that if they abduct someone and ship them to Guantanamo, then that person (under Boumediene) has the right to a habeas hearing, but if they instead ship them to Bagram, then the detainee has no rights of any kind.
In other words, the detainee’s Constitutional rights depends on where the Government decides to drop them off to be encaged. One of the first acts undertaken by the Obama DOJ that actually shocked civil libertarians was when, last February, as The New York Times put it, Obama lawyers “told a federal judge that military detainees in Afghanistan have no legal right to challenge their imprisonment there, embracing a key argument of former President Bush’s legal team.”
But last April, John Bates, the Bush-43-appointed, right-wing judge overseeing the case, rejected the Bush/Obama position and held that Boumediene applies to detainees picked up outside of Afghanistan and then shipped to Bagram. I reviewed that ruling here, in which Judge Bates explained that the Bagram detainees are “virtually identical to the detainees in Boumediene,” and that the Constitutional issue was exactly the same: namely, “the concern that the President could move detainees physically beyond the reach of the Constitution and detain them indefinitely.”
In India, diesel engines are becoming more popular as more carmakers penetrate the market and bring new technologies. Currently, petrol models dominate the Indian car market, which rose by 25% to 1.9m vehicles last year.
CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) made public the study about public pools, they checked plenty of public pools across the country and the results are quite bad. They found that 12,5% of pools are totally unsafe to use.
From being Infiniti marketing boss, John Brancheau is now the vice president of marketing for Nissan Division. Nissan North America appointed Brancheau after Joel Ewanick left the division to work as the marketing chief of General Motors Co. Ewanick was with Nissan only six weeks after his stint in Hyundai. Brancheau had actually worked in GM as director of media operations before he was recruited to Infiniti in 2008. At Infiniti, he had served as director of global marketing communication and media, where he was responsible for the strategic development of Infiniti’s brand communications. As Nissan Division’s vice president of marketing, Brancheau will manage marketing, pricing and product management.
Pac-Man 30th Anniversary really touched Google, it’s a bit unnatural to see google changing it’s logo for 3 days now but they still have the playable pacman logo, I think this was the best Doodle ever. Google made happy millions of it’s users with integrated Pac-Man game.
In China, Volvo Car Corp. is recalling 571 XC90 SUVs due to a defective fuel line, according to media reports. The website of China’s quality regulator, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (GAQSIQ), indicated that the recall covered 571 imported 3.2-liter XC90 and 2.5T XC90 luxury SUVs built between October 26, 2009 and December 21, 2009. Volvo’s recall notice pointed to a manufacturing defect in the fuel pressure line that may result in a fuel smell and/or fuel seepage. Because the fuel line is under constant pressure, seepage can develop into a greater leakage within a short period of time. The worst that can happen is that the leakage may lead to a fire at the right front wheel house area if there’s an external ignition source. Those affected are asked to call an authorized Volvo dealer to have the fuel pressure line inspected or even replaced. They may also call Volvo at 400-678-1200, or contact the GAQSIQ.