Obama backs Bush on Bagram prisoners

By GottaLaff

This is not helping those of us who are already suffering from crankitude:

The Justice Department told a federal court Friday that it shouldn’t consider legal challenges filed by prisoners being held in Afghanistan by the U.S. military — another example of the Obama administration hewing to one of President Bush’s war-on-terror stances.

In a short legal filing, Justice Department lawyers said they planned to maintain the Bush administration’s claim that the roughly 600 prisoners held in Afghaninstan have no right to contest their detention in the courts. [...]

Last year, the Supreme Court ruled that war-on-terror prisoners at Guantanamo Bay have the right to file court petitions because the U.S. has “de facto sovereignty” over the base, located on land leased from Cuba.

However, the Justice Department has argued that prisoners in Afghanistan, held at the Bagram Airbase outside Kabul, lack recourse to the courts because the U.S. does not have similar control over that region. [...]

The opportunity the Obama administration passed up today was created by Judge John Bates on January 22, when he issued an order noting the change in administration and offering the government a chance to “refine” its position in the Afghanistan-related cases.

This is disappointing, to say the least. I'm so ready for this day to be over.