American National Government

Janet Henry

Civil Liberties, Habeas Corpus, and the War on Terror

Instructor: Mary Flowers

February 4, 2013

Since September 11, 2001, the United States invaded Afghanistan there had been so many questions about the United States allowing the people they picked up during their sweep of suspicious groups and holding those people for questioning and interrogation. There were hundreds of people have been detained by the United States government as part of its war on terror. Most of these detainees face indefinite detention and have neither been charged with a crime nor afforded prisoner of war status. Habeas corpus serves to protect citizens against arbitrary arrest, torture, and extra judicial killings and is a fundamental personal liberty guaranteed by our Constitution and cannot be suspended based on that fact. The right of habeas corpus is the constitutionally bestowed right of a person to present evidence before a court that he or she has been wrongly imprisoned. The right of writs of habeas corpus is granted in the article of the constitution states, “The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.” ( Habeas Corpus in times of times of Emergency; Iowa State Review) A Habeas Corpus petition is a petition filed with a court by a person who objects to his own or another’s imprisonment. The petition must show that the court ordering the imprisonment made a legal or factual fight against illegal and arbitrary imprisonment. They must also show that the court ordering the imprisonment made a legal or factual error. The right of habeas corpus is the constitutionally bestowed right of a person it was an attempt to fight against illegal arbitrary imprisonment that had been a hallmark of British colonial rule before the American Revolution ( Halliday, 2010 ). Since that time, it has been suspended several times of emergency, such as the Civil War.

The prisoners were also sent to a place called Guantanamo Bay. Some of the people imprisoned in this facility have been incarcerated since 2002. The lack of Congress’s concern is to transfer the remaining prisoners to a facility located in an area that they would be able to have a fair trial has almost been impossible. These people are still sitting at “GITMO” waiting in detention for their day in court. So is it fair that these people sit in limbo for all these years caught in red tape? I truly don’t think that it is fair. The very first thing