SCOTUS shifted custody of "enemy combatant" Jose Padilla from a Navy brig to the Justice Dept. today. The move was praised by the administration, who've flipflopped a bit on this whole issue.

There are a couple of issues at stake here. One is whether or not the military can detain U.S. citizens indefinitely as enemy combatants. Even though Padilla was a U.S. citizen, he's was denied all the rights due one. He was held for three years in a brig. He couldn't see a lawyer or talk to anyone to fight the detention. His civil rights were violated up one side down and down the other.

SCOTUS hasn't agreed to take up the military issue just yet although Padilla's lawyers are intent on pressing the issue as they should. The primary reason this whole thing was shifted to the DOJ was to turn off the military detainment issue quickly They now hold the issue as moot and one can be sure they're hoping it will go away.

The whole bitch of this is that when he was originally picked up back 2002, he was accused of being involved in a dirty bomb plot. He was held for years on that as an enemy combatant. When the DOJ filed charges, the dirty bomb plot was never mentioned. They just said he was part of a vast terrorist conspiracy.

Sounds like a load of bull to me. They got the situation wrong and they wanted to cover it up. And REGARDLESS of the what he was charged with, as a U.S. citizen, he's guaranteed certain rights and he was denied them. The U.S. military, the DOJ and the executive branch need to apologize to him for the improper treatment he received. It won't happen but he deserves it as an American citizen.

Technorati Tags: Jose Padilla, SCOTUS, enemy combatant, civil rights, Justice Department

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