(UnitedVoice.com) – Denying someone their rights – even a suspected terrorist – is a slippery slope to start down, but it seems the Biden administration is trying it. Now the Supreme Court is asking why a Guantanamo Bay inmate, who has never been charged with any crime, can’t be allowed to testify about his treatment.
A remarkable moment at the Supreme Court today as Justices Gorsuch and Sotomayor pressured a government lawyer to let Abu Zubaydah testify about his torture by the CIA. Zubaydah has been imprisoned at Guantanamo for 15 years. pic.twitter.com/FMsSnvFM2l
— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) October 6, 2021
Abu Zubaydah is a Palestinian man who was captured by the CIA in 2002 and has spent the last 19 years detained without charge, 15 of them at Guantanamo Bay. As part of a criminal investigation in Poland into alleged abuses by two CIA contractors, authorities want to interview him, but the administration is blocking it. Three Supreme Court justices want to know why.
On October 6, acting US Solicitor General Brian Fletcher appeared in front of the Supreme Court to discuss the case. The administration claims that testimony from Zubaydah, who claims he was waterboarded by CIA contractors, would harm US national security. Justice Neil Gorsuch isn’t convinced. Pushing Fletcher for answers, he asked why Zubaydah can’t testify about his own treatment without requiring any comment from the government. That, he says, would “obviate the need” for the administration’s blocking efforts. Justices Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayer – both Liberals – backed up Gorsuch’s viewpoint. Will that push the government into letting Zubaydah give his side of the story?
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