Federal Appeals Court Compares Military Evidence To Lewis Carroll Poem

Judges cite nonsense poem in Gitmo case

Ruling says Chinese Muslim was improperly labeled as enemy combatant

The Associated Press
updated 1:54 p.m. CT, Mon., June. 30, 2008

WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court reviewing evidence at Guantanamo Bay compared a Bush administration legal argument to one made by a hapless, dimwitted character in a 19th century nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit cited the 1876 poem, "The Hunting of the Snark," in ruling that the military improperly labeled a Chinese Muslim as an enemy combatant. The ruling was issued last week but an unclassified version of the opinion was released only Monday.

It was the first time a court has reviewed the military's decision-making and considered whether a detainee should be held. The ruling provides guidance to federal district judges, who are about to begin reviewing dozens of such cases now that the Supreme Court says detainees can challenge their detention in federal court.

The appeals court said military review panels, known as Combatant Status Review Tribunals, were unable to assess much of the evidence against the detainee, Huzaifa Parhat, and at times treated accusations as evidence.

"The big issue now is, can any CSRT decision survive this kind of scrutiny?" Parhat's lawyer, Susan Baker Manning said.

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Check the link for background that may help explain how Alice (of Wonderland fame) appears also to have been involved in US "secret detentions." It appears there may be several non-enemy-combatants who, now being identified and their whereabouts known, have no place safe to go if released. Maybe we'll have to grant them US asylum(?) (if we ever get an immigration act that accomplishes anything).

John