thedrifter
08-10-07, 07:55 AM
Terror suspects at Guantanamo declared enemy combatants
By: LOLITA C. BALDOR - Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- The 14 so-called "high-value" detainees who were transferred from secret CIA prisons to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, last year have all been declared enemy combatants and are subject to trial.
The Pentagon announced the declarations Thursday.
The detainees, including suspected planners of the Sept. 11 attacks, the USS Cole bombing and the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, will now be thrust into a military trial system mired in legal challenges and hampered by lengthy delays.
Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England has approved the "enemy combatant" designation for all 14, after reviewing recommendations from their Combatant Status Review Tribunals, which took place over the last six months. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman would not say Thursday when England made the decisions, but indicated that they were done over a period of time.
England's ruling now allows the 14 to be held indefinitely at the detention center and put on trial for war crimes.
But the trial system itself remains under challenge and it has been called into question by recent court rulings, including a decision by one military judge to throw out a case against a Guantanamo detainee over the wording of the "enemy combatant" designation.
That judge, Army Col. Peter Brownback, said he had no choice but to throw out the case against terror suspect Omar Khadr because he had been classified as an "enemy combatant" by a military panel years earlier -- and not as an "alien unlawful enemy combatant."
He said the Military Commissions Act, signed by Bush last year, says only those classified as "unlawful" enemy combatants can face war trials here.
Asked about England's decision to declare the detainees "enemy combatants" and not include the word unlawful, Pentagon spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Chito Peppler said, "These proceedings make one determination -- and that is whether or not the detainee meets the criteria for designation as an enemy combatant, as defined in our regulations. These regulations do not distinguish between lawful and unlawful enemy combatants."
The tribunals were created in 2004 by the Bush administration after the Supreme Court faulted the government for not giving detainees access to courts. That system was thrown out by the Supreme Court last year, prompting Congress to set up new guidelines for war-crimes trials.
The Guantanamo Bay facility has come under increasing criticism from around the world, prompting calls to shut it down. President Bush, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and others have said they'd like to close it, and lawmakers on Capitol Hill have threatened to cut its budget.
At a White House news conference Thursday, Bush said the U.S. can't shut down the facility until other countries agree to take the more than 350 people still there. "A lot of people don't want killers in their midst," he said.
Bush said the United States is determined to make sure the worst of them are tried for their alleged crimes.
The administration, however, has not yet come up with a plan to deal with those detainees they believe cannot be transferred or released, but must be imprisoned indefinitely.
Whitman also said Thursday that six more detainees have been transferred from Guantanamo to other countries. Five were transferred to Afghanistan and one was sent to Bahrain.
The detainee from Bahrain was Isa al-Murbati, the last Bahraini held at Guantanamo, according to his attorney, Joshua Colangelo-Bryan. Al-Murbati had been held at Guantanamo since June 2002.
Whitman said that about 80 of the 355 detainees who remain at the facility are eligible for either transfer or release, and discussions are ongoing with other countries for those moves.
To date, 420 detainees have been either transferred or released.
On the Net:
Defense Department: www.defenselink.mil
Ellie
By: LOLITA C. BALDOR - Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- The 14 so-called "high-value" detainees who were transferred from secret CIA prisons to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, last year have all been declared enemy combatants and are subject to trial.
The Pentagon announced the declarations Thursday.
The detainees, including suspected planners of the Sept. 11 attacks, the USS Cole bombing and the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, will now be thrust into a military trial system mired in legal challenges and hampered by lengthy delays.
Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England has approved the "enemy combatant" designation for all 14, after reviewing recommendations from their Combatant Status Review Tribunals, which took place over the last six months. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman would not say Thursday when England made the decisions, but indicated that they were done over a period of time.
England's ruling now allows the 14 to be held indefinitely at the detention center and put on trial for war crimes.
But the trial system itself remains under challenge and it has been called into question by recent court rulings, including a decision by one military judge to throw out a case against a Guantanamo detainee over the wording of the "enemy combatant" designation.
That judge, Army Col. Peter Brownback, said he had no choice but to throw out the case against terror suspect Omar Khadr because he had been classified as an "enemy combatant" by a military panel years earlier -- and not as an "alien unlawful enemy combatant."
He said the Military Commissions Act, signed by Bush last year, says only those classified as "unlawful" enemy combatants can face war trials here.
Asked about England's decision to declare the detainees "enemy combatants" and not include the word unlawful, Pentagon spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Chito Peppler said, "These proceedings make one determination -- and that is whether or not the detainee meets the criteria for designation as an enemy combatant, as defined in our regulations. These regulations do not distinguish between lawful and unlawful enemy combatants."
The tribunals were created in 2004 by the Bush administration after the Supreme Court faulted the government for not giving detainees access to courts. That system was thrown out by the Supreme Court last year, prompting Congress to set up new guidelines for war-crimes trials.
The Guantanamo Bay facility has come under increasing criticism from around the world, prompting calls to shut it down. President Bush, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and others have said they'd like to close it, and lawmakers on Capitol Hill have threatened to cut its budget.
At a White House news conference Thursday, Bush said the U.S. can't shut down the facility until other countries agree to take the more than 350 people still there. "A lot of people don't want killers in their midst," he said.
Bush said the United States is determined to make sure the worst of them are tried for their alleged crimes.
The administration, however, has not yet come up with a plan to deal with those detainees they believe cannot be transferred or released, but must be imprisoned indefinitely.
Whitman also said Thursday that six more detainees have been transferred from Guantanamo to other countries. Five were transferred to Afghanistan and one was sent to Bahrain.
The detainee from Bahrain was Isa al-Murbati, the last Bahraini held at Guantanamo, according to his attorney, Joshua Colangelo-Bryan. Al-Murbati had been held at Guantanamo since June 2002.
Whitman said that about 80 of the 355 detainees who remain at the facility are eligible for either transfer or release, and discussions are ongoing with other countries for those moves.
To date, 420 detainees have been either transferred or released.
On the Net:
Defense Department: www.defenselink.mil
Ellie