US detainee tribunals notch wins, raise concerns

Mohammed's admissions, if proven at trial, would make him eligible for a death sentence. But there is no suggestion that Mohammed was granted access to legal counsel prior to making his incriminating public admissions.

Legal analysts say the most revealing assessment of the legitimacy of the Guantánamo procedures will come when a terror suspect and his lawyers test the fairness of the system in the crucible of a full war-crimes trial.

Then it will be largely up to a military judge presiding over the military commission to determine to what extent trial protections taken for granted in American courts may apply to terror suspects on trial at Guantánamo.

Such criticism underscores the substantial hurdles faced by the Bush administration in seeking to build national and international credibility for its commission process. Guantánamo has become for many an international symbol of oppression and injustice.

Even Defense Secretary Robert Gates suggested Thursday that Congress consider moves that would close the detention camp but allow the US to hold some terror suspects for life.

Justice Department officials oppose such a move in part because it would undermine the government's long-held strategy of sharply limiting the legal rights and legal recourse of terror suspects by continuing to hold them outside sovereign US territory.

"Guantánamo remains the most secure and efficient environment to process and detain these enemy combatants," says Defense Department spokesman Lt. Commander Chito Peppler. "While some have called for the closure of Guantánamo, none have put forth a viable option to handle these dangerous men and prevent their return to terrorism."

The US Supreme Court has rejected the view that Guantánamo is a legal black hole. But it remains unclear which rights, if any, protect terror suspects from unfair or cruel treatment by the government.

In a private conference on Friday, the Supreme Court is set to consider whether to take up a case examining whether the Guantánamo procedures authorized in a new law, the Military Commissions Act, are legal and constitutional.

In the meantime, officials at Guantánamo are pressing forward with detention hearings and war-crimes tribunals.

In addition to Hicks, two other long-time detainees have been designated for war-crimes trials at Guantánamo. Former Osama bin Laden driver Salim Ahmed Hamdan is facing charges that he engaged in a terror conspiracy and provided material support to Al Qaeda. Omar Ahmed Khadr, the son of a senior Al Qaeda member, is accused of murdering a US Army sergeant by throwing a hand grenade at American soldiers following a firefight in an Afghan village in July 2002. Mr. Khadr was 15 years old at the time.

Legal records show Hicks was never a major player in Al Qaeda. The former kangaroo skinner and world traveler turned would-be Muslim fighter, appears to have played a role similar to that of American Taliban John Walker Lindh.

Both carried rifles and associated with forces battling US troops and US allies following 9/11. In addition, according to government documents, Hicks attended five terror-training courses teaching expertise in kidnapping, assassination, and surveillance, among other skills.

Mr. Lindh is serving a 20-year prison sentence without the possibility of parole after entering a guilty plea in 2002.

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