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Marjorie Cohn

Marjorie Cohn

Posted: June 24, 2008 11:04 AM

Scalia Cites False Information in Habeas Corpus Dissent


To bolster his argument that the Guantánamo detainees should be denied the right to prove their innocence in federal courts, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in his dissent in Boumediene v. Bush: "At least 30 of those prisoners hitherto released from Guantánamo have returned to the battlefield." It turns out that statement is false.

According to a new report by Seton Hall Law Center for Policy and Research, "The statistic was endorsed by a Senate Minority Report issued June 26, 2007, which cites a media outlet, CNN. CNN, in turn, named the DoD as its source. The '30' number, however, was corrected in a DoD press release issued in July 2007, and a DoD document submitted to the House Foreign Relations Committee on May 20, 2008 abandons the claim entirely."

The largest possible number of detainees who could have "returned to the fight" is 12; however, the Department of Defense has no system for tracking the whereabouts of released detainees. The only one who has undisputedly taken up arms against the United States or its allies, "ISN 220," was released by political officers of the DoD against the recommendations of military officers.

Scalia bolstered his hysterical claim that the Boumediene decision "will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed" with stale information that was proven to be false one year ago. Professor Mark Denbeaux, director of the Seton Hall Center, said Scalia "was relying uncritically on information that originated with a party in the case before him."

The Supreme Court decided in a 5-4 decision that the Guantánamo detainees were entitled to file petitions for writ of habeas corpus to challenge their detention. More than 200 men who have been held for up to six years and have never been charged with a crime, will now have their day in court. Many were snatched from their homes, picked up off the street or in airports, or sold to the U.S. military by warlords for bounty.

Scalia, who sits on the highest court in the land, has acted as a loyal foot soldier for the executive branch of government.

To bolster his argument that the Guantánamo detainees should be denied the right to prove their innocence in federal courts, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in his dissent in Boumediene v. Bush: "At lea...
To bolster his argument that the Guantánamo detainees should be denied the right to prove their innocence in federal courts, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in his dissent in Boumediene v. Bush: "At lea...
 
 
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01:26 AM on 06/27/2008
I'm proud of Marjorie, I think I'll bake her some brownies as a gift :0), try the dandelion salad, crispy and delicious.
06:13 AM on 06/26/2008
Providing false information on terrorism, disseminating false information on terrorism must be investigated as a possible felony violation of the USA Patriot Act.

Scalia may have violated the USA Patriot Act. Should scalia be investigated under the USA Patriot Act?

The USA Patriot Act provides extremely powerful discovery and investigatory tools, scalia would wither. A legal remedy for the felony act of providing false information on terrorism is felony prosecution with the powerful USA Patriot Act felony provisions.

Loose lips sink ships, scalia made a foolish statement born of hubris he knew to be false. Scalia is a felony violator of the USA Patriot Act.

scalia may be guilty of a class A, B, or C USA Patriot Act felony violation.

scalia's might excuse this as, 'made a mistake', or, 'just didn't know' or some other weak excuse. We must hold the highest officials of the court to the highest standards and not only in matters of the decisions they make, but also and most importantly in the bearing of the law as it applys to the individuals that make up the court and our government as they apply those very laws to all of us.

If scalia knew, and lied about terrorism then he is un-American and is guilt of felony violation of the USA Patriot Act. False information on terrorism is un-American.
HUFFPOST PUNDIT
Durango
10:34 AM on 06/25/2008
What can you say. He is a Republican. They make stuff up. Do it all the time.It is called "Truthiness."

It is what Republicans do.

Forget that he is not supposed to be a Republican Supreme Court Justice.

He is supposed to be an American justice.

But he is not.
01:56 AM on 06/27/2008
I'm seeing John's new puppet Gitmo and Scalia, on a flash stage, water ...
09:22 AM on 06/25/2008
Maybe he was counting the ones that were converted into militants for being wrongfully imprisoned.
10:51 AM on 06/25/2008
There's not even any of them, since they were all tortured, and are now suffering from US induced mental illnesses!
01:59 AM on 06/27/2008
I honestly think they may try to put them back 'on the front lines'. They recycle them, and make new ones at the same time.
01:21 AM on 06/27/2008
prolly a couple of crack 'c' teams that recondition the released detainees, you know, credit card, papers, safe house ... guns ... targets. The teams mission is to 'rehabilitate' terrorists that have been tortured. America is a bad movie.
outnow
Ban the bomb
09:03 AM on 06/25/2008
Citing evidence outside the records is OK if the judge could take "judicial notice." Just because Fox News said something, though, that does not qualify it for being "a matter beyond dispute."

The "appearance of impropriety" should be avoided. Others statements by the Justice call his impartiality into question.

Many inmates go back to crime, however, there was a reason to arrest them in the first place. Many of the Gitmo inmates were turned in for a bounty or arrested as a result of others who were tortured. There are not even records of the reasons four and five years later, so the temptation is very great to obtain confessions by torture and to justify this inhumane and possibly illegal behavior. A delay in determining whether there is even a reason to detain a suspect is usually were prejudicial, especially where there are no lawyers and torture is being used.

The dissent contains ad hoc reasoning. You are guilty because we said so. We arrested you because you're guilty.
HUFFPOST PUNDIT
Durango
10:35 AM on 06/25/2008
"The dissent contains ad hoc reasoning. You are guilty because we said so. We arrested you because you're guilty."

That is frightening reasoning coming from any officer of the court.

But from a Supreme Court Justice?

Unforgivable.

He has violated his oath of office. He should be impeached.
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dadw5boys
Disabled Vietnam Vet
08:47 AM on 06/25/2008
THERE IS FALSE INFORMATION IN THE U.S. CONSTITUTION????????
10:53 AM on 06/25/2008
Explain please?
07:33 AM on 06/25/2008
It's only in a culture as crass and anti-intellectual as ours that a clever partisan like Scalia can be consistently referred to as "brilliant." It's one of these cases where you have to "consider the source." It's our sitting pundits and politicians who pronounce a sitting judge "brilliant" when any objective viewer can plainly see that his "brilliance" consists entirely of trying to institutionalize the very talking points these pundits are trying to promote and these politicians are trying to legalize. It's called "scratch my back, I'll scratch yours."
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03:18 AM on 06/25/2008
Every day my mind holds its hands to its head and runs headlong through the nightmare America has become - Edvard Munch's "Scream" come to life in what would have seemed the very least likely place. Imagine a Supreme Court Justice - let me say that again - a Supreme Court Justice - holding against - against - Habeas Corpus. The mind reels - I think I'm gonna be sick.
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dadw5boys
Disabled Vietnam Vet
08:49 AM on 06/25/2008
Like George Carlin said " We are born into a freak show and in the USA we have a front row seat".
12:02 AM on 06/25/2008
This figure, and allegation, was printed in a column by Josh White in The Washington Post. The meme of "return to the battlefield" was presented without the slightest question. (http://memestreamblog.wordpress.com/2008/05/14/posted/) But consider this: those released from captivity in Guantanamo underwent thorough scrutiny to ascertain whether they were, in fact, "enemy combatants"; and they were found by the DoD to be innocents.

Some number of those released may have gone from prisoner to jihadi. But did they RETURN to that activity or TURN to it?
12:34 AM on 06/25/2008
I think that is te real issue. Is it so hard to believe someome wo had been held illegally by a country for five years and tortured would in turn become that country's worst enemy.
02:16 AM on 06/27/2008
short or long, they win both ways, they get more, seasoned, repeat offender terrorists which assists in bearing statistical data to support ROI. This is their job, the torturers and the jailers and the transporters, this is what they do, create terrorism. It's their job.
10:11 PM on 06/24/2008
Scalia is not an "intellectual," he's a right wing ideologue. The is no one more stupid thatn an ideoulgue. So it dosen't surprise me that he gets his "facts" from right wing talk show hosts and wingnut web sites.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Lemeritus
Been there, done that, lived to tell
10:36 PM on 06/24/2008
An ideologue, perhaps... but we underestimate Scalia at our own peril.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
anelder
01:28 AM on 06/25/2008
Scalia is a force to be reckoned with due to his elevation to the Court. So, too, many of us are impressed by power and money achieved. I agree that he is an ideologue. I also observe that he did not have a great deal of regard for his male parent but instead for his mother. Since there is that imbalance I would be interested in his mother. It appears he became the symbol of achievement and authority hence - as I would put it - got carried away with himself. My comment does not in any way diminish his mother. Many families have imbalanced parental influences. What I believe is he is similar to those who just don't have a different pont of view and agree to disagree with others but instead rail against those who differ. Challenges are never what autocratic personalities can accept.
09:23 AM on 06/25/2008
these guys, like limbaugh, have an addiction to certainty and their "genius" is in their ability to deny and rationalize the simple black and white fantasy word that supplies constant opportunities to satisfy their need to judge with certainty.
06:38 PM on 06/24/2008
Scalia has delusions of intelligence. He is an underboss in a Mafia-like organization but is a capo di tutti capo wannabe. .Moreover, he is like a harbor tug- making its loudest noise when in the deepest fog. Oh how much he yearns to have lived in the glory days of Italy.under Mussolini.
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06:15 PM on 06/24/2008
If if it were true, they still should have their rights. You need to get that straight.
06:06 PM on 06/24/2008
If he did this on purpose, he is lying. impeach his sorry ass.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Ramirez
Taxpayer-American
05:55 PM on 06/24/2008
It's much better to have only 12 released detainees return to terrorism than 30.
HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
Eoin45
06:10 PM on 06/24/2008
Ramirez can always be counted upon to (deliberately) miss the point.
10:54 AM on 06/25/2008
It's also much better to have found out that these men had done nothing wrong and therefore to let them go, even if after that point they then become our enemy! Realize that had we not held them illegally for several years, WHILE TORTURING THEM, they probably would have been released and then gone back to their lives!
05:40 PM on 06/24/2008
Scalia can be impeached, right after Bush, Cheney, Rumsfield...
02:05 AM on 06/27/2008
scalia, bush, rumsfeld and cheney should all be prosecuted for Felony conspiracy, all of them as co-defendants charged with felony violation of the USA Patriot Act. Providing false information on terrorism is a felony violation of the USA Patriot Act. Disseminating false information on terrorism directly into the court record, scalia has literally been caught red-handed. He should resign but caesar's perverted never cease to marvel at the limits they might attain.

The RICO Act, the USA Patriot Act, racketeering and misprision of felony, I mean AMERICA ! What kind of filth is in your highest offices I mean sometimes I just can't believe this is happening in my sweet nation that I wish so dearly to love and respect.