Guantanamo decision puts limits on Bush's executive power
Afp, Washington
By saying no to military tribunals at Guantanamo, the Supreme Court has clipped US President George W. Bush's wings after he sought to assert his authority in the name of security following the attacks of September 11, 2001. The court's ruling Thursday "marked the end of the national security 'state of emergency' that has prevailed for nearly five years," commentator David Ignatius wrote in the Washington Post. "We can now see that after Sept. 11 there was a grab for unlimited executive power, led by Vice President (Dick) Cheney and his lawyer, David Addington," Ignatius said. "They intimidated or ignored critics within the White House and created a secret system unchecked by the other two branches of government." The landmark 5-3 decision held the administration violated the Geneva Conventions and the US military code of justice by setting up military tribunals, or commissions, to try detainees held at a US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The ruling "showed that even the president must yield to the rule of law," said Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University. The Guantanamo case "has more to do with the president's attempt to redefine the presidency than it does to military commissions themselves," Turley said. But Bush's supporters in the Republican party dismissed suggestions that Bush had suffered a major defeat.
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