When the Graham/Kyl/Levin amendment stripping habeas corpus rights from Gitmo detainees was passed, I wrote a post on the longer-term strategic costs to the US of adopting such a policy. I focused on why access to courts is a hot-button issue across much of the developing world, where the phenomenon of the "disappeared" -- prisoners or people inconvenient to a regime who vanish off the face of the earth -- is all too common. The fate of the "disappeared" is often one of the biggest stumbling blocks when countries try to democratize after the overthrow of a repressive regime. Stories of innocent detainees caught up in the US system with no recourse, their families having no notion of what's become of them, are likely to resonate painfully around the globe. And in the process, undermine US interests, including promotion of democracy.

I presented the case in the abstract. Now hilzoy, in her final post in the habeas series at Obsidian Wings, puts names and faces to the story.

As JC noted in earlier comments here, "that's going to make a good movie one day, although a deeply depressing movie."

My response: "Yes, and it will be a movie that millions upon millions of people in other parts of the world will go to see. And that will be part of how they think about America and Americans. A hundred Karen Hugheses can't compete with that message."

Hilzoy has written the first part of the screenplay for a movie that will be coming to a theater near you. Let's hope that the yet-to-be-written ending is a little more uplifting than what's come before.

[cross-posted at American Footprints (aka Liberals Against Terrorism)]