The Foreign Service Journal, March 2004

10 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A R C H 2 0 0 4 Diplomats Challenge Guantanamo Detentions in Supreme Court Nineteen retired diplomats have joined a lawsuit now before the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the Bush administration’s Guantanamo Bay de- tention system. Approximately 660 pris- oners from over 40 countries have been held for more than two years with no charges filed against them, no recourse to counsel and their every activity con- trolled by officers of the executive branch of the U.S. government. In November, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal on behalf of detainees who claim they should have the right to civilian court review of their detention. A D.C. Court of Appeals had earlier held that the plaintiffs —12 Kuwaiti, two British and two Australian nationals — have no recourse in U.S. courts because their location in Cuba puts them out of the U.S. judiciary’s jurisdiction. “The rulings have not gone unno- ticed abroad,” the diplomats state in their “friend of the court” brief. “Governments and international orga- nizations have taken offense. Other nations have seen in them a license to incarcerate their own citizens and oth- ers with impunity.” The diplomats argue that the Guantanamo system is causing grave problems in America’s foreign rela- tions. What is at stake, they say, is America’s greatest diplomatic asset and that which has made the U.S. an exemplary model for others — name- ly, the constitutional promise that no person may be denied liberty by arbi- trary government action. The Bush administration designat- ed the Guantanamo detainees “unlaw- ful combatants” in the war on terror- ism. They are therefore not entitled to protection under the Geneva Conven- tions as prisoners of war, and accord- ing to the laws of war could be held until “the end of hostilities,” as Human Rights Watch explains in a background review ( http://www.hrw.org/english /docs/2004/01/09/usdom6917.htm ). C YBERNOTES T hey had [chemical and biological weapons] stockpiles, they fought the Iranians with it, and they certainly did use it on the Kurds. But what everyone was talking about is stockpiles produced after the end of the last (1991) Gulf War, and I don’t think there was a large-scale production program in the 1990s. — David Kay, former head of the CIA’s Iraq Survey Group, Jan. 23, reuters.com If you find yourself annoyed with the current political quagmires or just with humans in general, then make travel arrangements with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at www.jpl.nasa.gov , a u ser-friendly site filled with fun facts about Mars. Aside from preplanning dream vacations on the Red Planet, astronomy buffs can follow the progress of the twin rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, and search for signs of life by investigating the many hi-resolution images of the Martian landscape. Should digital images of Mars not tickle your fancy, a “bird’s-eye” view of Earth, our cozy solar system and the rest of the final frontier are also at your fin- gertips. The site is rich in background information on the science and technol- ogy of space exploration for both the layman and expert, and also features events such as online lectures on biology, physics, and computer science. There is a lively kids’ section too. Each section contains updates about new discoveries and a comprehensive multimedia presentation. For example, in the Solar System portion, you can “ride along with three of NASA’s most exciting robotic missions, or build your own exploratory spacecraft” by clicking on the “Solar System Experience” tab under Multimedia. Before building your spacecraft, you may also brush up on your interplanetary navigational skills by reviewing the “Basics of Space Flight” under the Education tab on the main page. JPL, managed by the California Institute of Technology for NASA, under- takes the robotic exploration of the solar system for NASA and manages the net- work of telescopes on the ground and in space studying distant galaxies and learning more about the origins of the universe. JPL also manages the NASA satellites monitoring and studying planet Earth. — Dwijen Jaydev Mehta, Editorial Intern Site of the Month: www.jpl.nasa.gov