Obama administration sides with Bush on prison matter

Birmingham Star Sunday 22nd February, 2009

The Obama administration has agreed with former president George Bush that detainees from the US air base in Bagram, Afghanistan cannot challenge their detention in US courts.

The ruling upholds the former Bush administration's policy on the issue.

Last year the US Supreme Court ruled that prisoners at the US Naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could file such court petitions because the United States has jurisdiction over that facility.

But the Justice Department has now ordered the US air base in Afghanistan is different because it is in a currently operating war zone.

President Obama last week ordered the continuation of another Bush administration policy when he backed the state secrets privilege, which calls for the dismissal of a lawsuit involving allegations that the CIA arranged for suspects to be flown overseas to be tortured.

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