Cato Daily Dispatch for December 18, 2003
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Appeals Court Orders Military to Release PadillaReport: Chief WMD Hunter in Iraq Is Stepping Down
Administration Reaches Trade Agreement with Central America
Appeals Court Orders Military to Release Padilla
"A federal appeals court, in a harsh blow to the Bush administration's anti-terrorism policies, ruled on Thursday that the president does not have the power to detain an American citizen seized on U.S. soil as an enemy combatant," Reuters reports. "The U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 ruling, ordered the government to release Jose Padilla, who is being held incommunicado in a Navy brig, from military custody within 30 days."
In "Jose Padilla: No Charges and No Trial, Just Jail," Cato Institute Senior Fellow Robert A. Levy writes: "When Americans are taken into custody, they have the right to retain an attorney. Congress must first set the rules. Then an impartial judge, not the president, should make the ultimate decision as to whether the arrest and imprisonment comport with the Constitution."
In "Citizen Padilla: Dangerous Precedents," Levy says: "[W]e cannot permit the executive branch to declare unilaterally that a U.S. citizen may be characterized as an enemy combatant, whisked away, detained indefinitely without charges, denied legal counsel, and prevented from arguing to a judge that he is wholly innocent. ... When the executive, legislative, and judicial branches agree on the framework, the potential for abuse is significantly diminished. When only the executive has acted, the foundation of a free society can too easily erode."
Report: Chief WMD Hunter in Iraq Is Stepping Down
"David Kay, the head of the U.S. effort to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, has told administration officials he plans to leave before the Iraq Survey Group's work is completed and could depart before February," The Washington Post reports.
"The move comes as more of Kay's staff has been diverted from the weapons hunt to help search for Iraqi insurgents, and at a time when expectations remain low that any weaponry will be discovered."
In a statement released today, Charles Peña, Cato's director of defense policy studies, says: "Reports that David Kay is resigning as the head of the U.S.-led Iraq Survey Group searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq before the group's work is completed raise fresh questions about the Bush administration's pre-war claims. The departure of Kay--a former U.N. weapons inspector who supported the administration's pre-war WMD claims--would be an indicator that he does not expect to unearth any of the weapons of mass destruction that had previously been cited by the President Bush as a threat that required U.S. military intervention."
Administration Reaches Trade Agreement with Central America
"The U.S. on Wednesday concluded free trade negotiations with four Central American nations, saying it was prepared to move forward on the deal even without the participation of the largest, Costa Rica," the Financial Times reports. "The deal is the first trade agreement negotiated entirely by the administration of President George W. Bush, which came to office vowing to revive what it charged was a moribund U.S. trade policy."
In "Free-Trade Agreements: Steppingstones to a More Open World," a Trade Briefing Paper published in July, Daniel T. Griswold, associate director of the Center for Trade Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, argues that the free trade agreements proposed by the Bush administration are worthy of pursuit. He writes: "Free-trade agreements deviate from the multilateral principle of nondiscrimination, and they can divert trade from more efficient to less efficient but favored import producers. But under the right conditions, FTAs can inject new competition into our domestic economy, lowering prices for consumers and shifting factors of production to more efficient uses, while leveling the playing field for U.S. exporters.
"FTAs provide institutional competition to keep multilateral talks on track. If other members of the World Trade Organization become intransigent, the United States must have the option of pursuing agreements with a "coalition of the willing" in pursuit of trade liberalization. FTAs can spur regional integration and blaze a trail through difficult areas for broader negotiations in the future. As a foreign policy tool, FTAs can cement ties with allies and encourage countries to stay on the trail of political and economic reform."
Wyatt Dubois, editor, wdubois@cato.org