Supreme Court justice said to slam detainee rights

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin
Scalia dismissed the idea that Guantanamo prison detainees have
constitutional rights and called European concerns over the
issue hypocritical, Newsweek magazine reported on Sunday.

The comments, which Newsweek said were recorded at private
appearance by Scalia in Switzerland on March 8, were made in
advance of a Supreme Court hearing scheduled for this week on a
legal challenge by a Guantanamo prisoner against U.S. military
tribunals.

Newsweek quoted a human-rights lawyer and legal experts as
saying the conservative justice’s remarks may compromise his
credibility in deciding on the case facing the court, but it
said Scalia did not refer directly to this week’s case.

“War is war, and it has never been the case that when you
captured a combatant you have to give them a jury trial in your
civil courts,” Scalia said in the talk at the University of
Freiberg, according to Newsweek. “Give me a break.”

Asked at Freiburg whether detainees at the U.S. naval base
at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba have protections under international
conventions, Scalia replied, “If he was captured by my army on
a battlefield, that is where he belongs. I had a son on that
battlefield and they were shooting at my son, and I’m not about
to give this man who was captured in a war a full jury trial. I
mean it’s crazy.”

Newsweek said it had reviewed a recording of the talk.

The magazine said Scalia’s son Matthew served with the U.S.
Army in Iraq.

It said Scalia added that he was “astounded” at
“hypocritical” reaction in Europe to the Guantanamo prison.

Lawyers for Salim Ahmed Hamdan, accused of being Osama bin
Laden’s bodyguard and driver, present oral arguments before the
Supreme Court on Tuesday to challenge U.S. President George W.
Bush’s authority to try prisoners before military tribunals.

Chief Justice John Roberts has recused himself from the
hearing because he ruled on the case while he was on a federal
appeals court. Scalia has previously recused himself from a
case — one involving the Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. flag
– after making public remarks on it.

The Hamdan case is considered an important test of the
administration’s policy in the war on terrorism. The tribunals,
formally called military commissions, were authorized by Bush
after the September 11 attacks and have been criticized by
human rights groups as being fundamentally unfair.

There are about 500 suspected al Qaeda and Taliban
prisoners at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

The administration’s argument was based on a law signed by
Bush on December 30 that limits the ability of Guantanamo
prisoners caught in the president’s war on terrorism to
challenge their detention in federal courts.