While June 12′s Supreme Court ruling in Boumediene v. Bush addressed only the habeas corpus rights of suspected terrorists detained at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, the language of the decision, coupled with the Court’s ruling in Munaf v. Geren and its companion case, Geren v. Omar, has strong implications for the rights of suspected terrorists being held by the United States in other parts of the world, such as Afghanistan and Iraq.
The media and most lawyers have focused largely on the detainees at Guantanamo Bay, some of whom have been held for up to six years without charges or judicial review. But ever since the Court ruled in Rasul v. Bush that these detainees have at least some rights, the U.S. has been shifting suspected terrorists from Guantanamo to other detention centers — including one at the Bagram Theater Internment Facility in Afghanistan, one of about 20 detention centers used by the U.S. in that country, according to Human Rights Watch. There are now more than 600 prisoners at Bagram, according to Human Rights First and other advocates.
