Obama apes Bush on Afghan political prisoners

According to a February 21, 2009 report on RAWA News, the US Justice Department under the Obama Administration has declared that some 600 "enemy combatants" held at Bagram air base have no constitutional rights and so cannot challenge their detention in US courts.
Human rights groups had hoped Mr Obama would take a different stance to that of the former Bush administration.

'Expected better' from Obama

"The hope we all had in President Obama to lead us on a different path has not turned out as we'd hoped," said Tina Monshipour Foster, a human rights attorney representing a detainee at the Bagram Airfield. "We all expected better."
While President Obama says he is closing the Guantanamo Bay concentration camp, the Bagram ruling signals a more conservative approach.
Last year the Supreme Court gave suspects at Guantanamo the right to challenge their detention. Following that ruling, petitions were filed at a Washington district court on behalf of four Bagram detainees. The judge then gave the Obama administration a chance to refine the rules on appeals.
But justice department lawyers have now revealed that the new administration has decided not to change the government’s position.
A new prison is now planned at Bagram, designed to hold 1,100 more suspects.

Source: RAWA News