Another Gitmo Detainee Is Released
…after eight years of imprisonment. The ruling came last month, but its relevance is magnified by Charlie Savage's report in the New York Times yesterday that Obama has essentially dispensed with his campaign promise to close down Guantanamo.
What's most significant about this is that Hassen is now the 36th detainee who has won his habeas hearing since the Supreme Court in 2008 ruled they have the right to such hearings -- out of 50 whose petitions have been heard. In other words, 72% of Guantanamo detainees who finally were able to obtain just minimal due process (which is what a habeas hearing is) -- after years of being in a cage without charges -- have been found by federal judges to be wrongfully detained. These are people who are part of what the U.S. Government continues to insist are "the worst of the worst" who remain, and whose release is being vehemently contested by the Obama DOJ.
