Judge: Bush administration wrong on detainee policy

By Marissa Alavarces

The United States is moving in the wrong direction in its handling of detainees in the war on terror, a retired federal judge told students.

Judge John J. Gibbons, who spoke on Thursday, Oct. 26, in the Fireside Lounge, condemned the Bush administration’s denial of habeas corpus to prisoners, classification of some detainees as unlawful combats and use of interrogation procedures that border on torture.

“I know a lot of judges that would resign before they would sign a torture warrant. There are moral issues involved, never mind the unreliability of the information you get out of it,” said Gibbons. “I’m also opposed to the death penalty under any circumstances, but maybe I am an extremist.”

Gibbons said the executive branch failed to seek the opinions of Congress or the public when determining whether or not they had the right to detain in secret both citizens and non-citizens.

“The executive branch, without consultation with Congress or the public, decided that it had the authority to detain incommunicado persons inside and outside the United States, including so-called terrorists following Osama bin Laden, and supporters of the de facto government of Afghanistan, the Taliban,” said Gibbons. “It also included persons suspected to be entering the country as illegal immigrants, and persons suspected to have violated some federal criminal statutes.”

Executive branch officials decided, without consulting Congress, that if the commander-in-chief said so, they could disregard treaties protecting combatant and non-combatant detainees. As a result the United States began to do so, said Gibbons.

Detainees were held in ordinary pre-trial detention facilities run by the federal government, such as the Metropolitan Corrections Center, he said. Other places included Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and some local facilities such as the Passaic County Jail in New Jersey.

“There is no reliable means of determining the exact number of persons that have been detained in each of these facilities,” says Gibbons.

Gibbons discussed articles IV and V of the Geneva Conventions that involve the treatment of detainees.

“Article IV, governing civilian detainees, and Article V, governing soldier detainees, specify the standards for treatments of persons detained by armed forces of the signatory nation,” said Gibbons.

Ilene Goldberg, professor in the Law and Justice program, said she appreciated the judge’s keeping a critical eye on the government’s actions.
“Judge Gibbons has made a tremendous contribution to all of us through his efforts to ensure that government power is exercised in a way that is consistent with the Constitution,” said Goldberg.

Gibbons showed the Rider community that not everything is exposed for the public to see. The lecture was very informative to the audience that he was addressing, said

Dr. Ava Baron, professor of sociology and former director of the Law and Justice program.

“I thought it was a big eye-opener,” said Baron.