Why Even Bother With a Trial?

I was watching the News Hour with Jim Leher (PBS) on SBS yesterday evening and noticed something that quite astonished me.

John Yoo, a Law professor at the University of California at Berkeley and former deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice was having a debate/discussion with another US Attorney, Tom Wilner who is representing several Kuwaiti men held at Guantanamo Bay.
John Yoo, is supposed to be a law professor but here he simply refused to accept the basic fundamental rule of law which is "Innocent until proven guilty" or in this case the protection given by Habeas corpus(see bottom of page for link*).

Obviously it's slightly more complicated than that but basically he has claimed each and every single one of the people picked up in Afghanistan and Pakistan are guilty therefore are denied any legal rights and that they are also guilty of not being soldiers so they are denied any protection offered by the Geneva Convention.

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Watch it in Streaming video or read the Text from the Interview here

The Lawyers acting for the Detainees at Guantánamo Bay have taken the US Government to court challenging them on their detention of people for years on end with no trial and without the protection of the Geneva Convention. No one has proven that these people were indeed Soldiers or what the US Government would like to term them as "Illegal Combatants". These people are asking that if they are soldiers then treat them like soldiers if not then they should be allowed a Fair Trial. Nothing more nothing less. But this Law professor was saying NO, they are Terrorists?? How does he know whether they are Terrorists or are not?...How can this person, who teaches law, deny the prisoners the fundamental right of innocence? How he can stand in judgement without a fair trial in this day and age when he claims to be an expert of the topic is beyond me.
Thankfully the US Senate denied the Legislation be passed.


More here from the Guardian

The US senate's decision to deny detainees at Guantánamo Bay the right to challenge their detention in a US court could be overturned this week, following protests from senators, civil rights groups and former military officers.

Habeas Corpus Act 1679