Gitmo: Holding Bush Accountable

The Supreme Court ruled against the abhorrent practice of detaining prisoners at the Guantanamo torture chamber prison complex in Cuba without due process. I love the opening sentence of the WaPo article, if only there will be "more of the same" of these types of instances.

The Supreme Court today delivered a stunning rebuke to the Bush administration over its plans to try Guantanamo detainees before military commissions, ruling that the commissions are unconstitutional.

In a 5-3 decision, the court said the trials were not authorized under U.S. law or the Geneva Conventions. Justice John Paul Stevens wrote the opinion in the case, called Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. recused himself from the case.

The ruling, which overturned a federal appeals court decision in which Roberts had participated, represented a defeat for President Bush, who had ordered military trials for detainees at the Guantanamo Bay naval base. About 450 detainees captured in the war on terrorism are currently held at the U.S. naval base in Cuba.

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Now that this issue has been somewhat resolved, will the media and political string-pullers hold George accountable for his stonewalling over the past several months, most recently during the suicides committed at the naval base?

Republican Sen. Arlen Specter Sunday criticized the administration for holding the detainees without trials.

"Those people have to be tried," said Specter, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee. Bush has said he is waiting for a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on whether the tribunals are constitutional, but Specter said the wait means "limbo and that creates a very difficult situation." The court is expected to issue its ruling by month's end.

The ball's in your court now, Junior.