Brief victory?

Will the decision of the US Supreme Court to uphold habeas corpus mark a lasting return to the rule of law in US domestic and international policy, asks Ahmad Naguib Roushdy* On 12 June 2008 the US Supreme Court issued its third decision rebuking the Bush administration for its treatment of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison facility in Cuba. Since 11 September, President George W Bush, implementing an agenda championed by his neo-conservative backers since the late 1990s, has near eliminated civil liberties and human dignity in the United States -- ironically what the US has accused Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and its other supposed enemies of doing. Yet, in Boumediene v Bush, the Supreme Court ruled five to four that detainees in Guantanamo had the right to challenge their detention before US federal courts. Guantanamo Bay... [read full story]