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ACLU suit alleges U.S. used foreign nations to hold terror suspects without charges.

The ACLU is today filing a suit alleging that the Bush administration has asked other nations to hold terrorism suspects whom the U.S. had not yet charged. The ACLU cites the case of Naji Hamdan, an American Muslim, who has been held for nearly three months in the United Arab Emirates “without charges, access to a lawyer or contact with his family.” Said an ACLU spokesperson:

If the U.S. government is responsible for this detention and we believe it is, this is clearly illegal because our government can’t contract away the Constitution by enlisting the aid of other governments that do not adhere to the Constitution’s requirements.

According to Hamdan’s wife, he “was ‘slapped’ while being interrogated for four days, during which he was accused alternatively of being an al Qaida member or working for Israeli or U.S. intelligence.”

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