Who Needs Evidence When You Have Divine Right?

A three panel court made up of judges appointed by Reagan, Clinton, and Bush appointees has rejected the Bush administration's argument that something is true simply because the administration says it is. Remember when Richard Nixon, after having dodged impeachment by resigning the office of president, argued that "if the president does it, it's legal"? The Bush administration has argued that simply because a detainee was accused of being an illegal combatant that he must be a terrorist. (Read The Washington Post story here.)

The case is the first to come before the court and is that of one of the detainees who was turned over to U.S. forces for pay. Turns out that the man is a member of an ethnic group from China, whom the Chinese government has marked for ethnic cleansing, and that the accusations came against him at a time when the Bush administration was courting Chinese support for U.S. military action in Afghanistan. This particular detainee is a member of the Uighurs and is one of 17 members of that group now being detained at Guantánamo. (Read The New York Times' story here.) John McCain has famously argued that the detainees should not be allowed trials. Now we know why.