Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharraf was infuriated that the detainees who he had “disappeared” into an archipelago of secret prisons were freed by judges after they invoked the right of habeas corpus, for petitioners to demand that the accused be brought to court and be informed of the charges against them. After the invocation of habeas corpus, it became clear that there wasn’t sufficient evidence to detain the disappeared, and so they were let go. After Musharraf suspended the Constitution last week, he made clear he’d institute a new system under which habeas corpus would not be entertained.
This is despicable conduct indeed. But how can the Bush administration complain about Musharraf’s decision to suspend the right of habeas corpus, when Bush himself has suspended that same right for his own uncharged detainees? This is another way in which America under Bush has lost its status as an exemplar of civil liberty. When we lost that status we lost the ability to lecture other nations about civil society, human rights and despotism.
(Sources: New York Times September 28 2006; Daily Times of Pakistan November 11 2007)
