Enemy combatant case

The Bush administration yesterday mounted its first full defense in the Supreme Court of presidential power to order the capture and long-term detention of "enemy combatants" during the war on terrorism.

The justices should not even get involved in any review of that power, because there is no constitutional doubt about it, the Justice Department argued in a lengthy legal brief.

The document was filed in the case of a US citizen, Yaser Esam Hamdi, who has been detained for two years by the US military since being picked up in Afghanistan.

...The brief mentions, in a footnote, that the Defense Department has now decided to allow Hamdi access to a lawyer, but it contends that it was granted not because he had a right to it, but "as a matter of discretion and military policy."

Uh-huh.


"It is well-settled that the president's war powers include the authority to capture and detain enemy combatants at least for the duration of a conflict."

Hamdi and others declared to be "enemy combatants" have no guarantee that they will be released at any specific point, since the government says the war on terrorism will have no identifiable end.

Isn't that just the neatest little trick?