October 10, 2003	Friday	Sha’aban 13, 1424

WASHINGTON, Oct 9: A group of former US federal judges, diplomats, military officials and human rights advocates urged the Supreme Court on Thursday to review the case of detainees held without being charged at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere in the name of terrorism.

The group filed seven friend-of-the-court briefs questioning the legality of the US treatment of prisoners at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and elsewhere under the US Constitution, the Geneva Conventions and international law.

“The idea that American executive branch personnel, particularly military personnel, can detain people beyond the reach of habeas corpus is just repugnant to the rule of law,” said John Gibbons, former chief judge of the federal appeals court in Philadelphia.

Gibbons said he hoped the US Supreme Court would “restore the rule of law” by authorizing a judicial review of these cases.

The military is holding about 660 terrorism suspects from 42 countries at the US base in Cuba. No charges have been brought against them but the United States has identified a handful it considers eligible for military tribunals.

The briefs were filed in connection with two cases from Guantanamo Bay currently being appealed to the Supreme Court and one for an American-born Taliban prisoner detained in a US Navy prison in Charleston, South Carolina.

The United States considers the prisoners enemy combatants and not prisoners of war who are granted a wide range of protections under international law.

The first detainees, seized during the US campaign against Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network and its Taliban protectors in Afghanistan, arrived in January 2002 at Guantanamo.

Ret. Rear Adm. Donald Guter, who was judge advocate general for the US Navy from 2000-2002, said the ‘war on terrorism’ should not be used as an excuse to disregard the rule of law.

He said the ‘war on terrorism’ could continue for a long time and it could be years before these detainees got a hearing.

“For all intents and purposes these folks are condemned to a long time on Guantanamo Bay in the prison camps with not even an opportunity to have their issues aired, their situation reviewed by a tribunal,” said Guter.

William D. Rogers, a former assistant secretary of state who joined a group of diplomats filing a brief, said US policy on the detainees was having a devastating impact on foreign policy.

Once regarded as a model for human rights, he said the United States was seen by many as the “bully on the block.”—Reuters