Detainee ruling rejects Bush terror-war tactic

An appeals court said Monday it retains jurisdiction to decide military-custody issue.

from the June 13, 2007 edition

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Government lawyers argued that both Mr. Bush and a federal district judge had determined that Marri was being properly held as an enemy combatant.

The government added that Marri was awaiting a Combat Status Review Tribunal determination to be conducted upon dismissal of his case. Combat Status Review Tribunals were set up at Guantánamo to provide detainees a measure of due process in lieu of habeas protections.

Lawyers for Guantánamo detainees say the CSRT process is not an adequate substitute for the right to petition a federal judge.

Nonetheless, all detainees at Guantánamo have been given CSRT reviews.

In contrast, Marri has never been afforded a CSRT review.

"The government's treatment of Al-Marri suggests that, despite its litigation posture, it does not actually believe that the CSRT process [in the Detainee Treatment Act and Military Commissions Act] applies to Al-Marri," Judge Motz writes in her opinion.

"In the four years since the president ordered Al-Marri detained as an enemy combatant, the government has completed CSRTs for each of the more than five hundred detainees held at Guantánamo Bay," she writes. "Yet it was not until November 13, 2006, the very day the government filed its motion to dismiss the case at hand, that the government even suggested that Al-Marri might be given a CSRT."

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