'Smashing defeat' for Bush on Guantanamo

After considering court appeals filed by 11 "enemy combatants" held at the facility, "the court concludes that the petitioners have stated valid claims under the Fifth Amendment to the United State Constitution," wrote Judge Joyce Hens Green.

Her ruling said the detentions in Cuba "violate the petitioners rights to due process of law".

The Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution states that no one under US jurisdiction can be "be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law".

The court found that some of the detainees, were in fact, covered by the Geneva Conventions.

"The court holds that at least some of the petitioners have stated valid claims under the third Geneva Convention," said a declassifed version of the federal ruling which was posted on the court's website.

Judge Green ruled that US officials withheld from detainees access to evidence used against them, and that the US Government had tended to rely on statements obtained by torture.

She also determined that the Government's definition of "enemy combatant" was vague and overly broad.

Suspects captured in the US-led war on terrorism, most of whom were taken prisoner in Afghanistan after US-led forces toppled the Taliban regime, or Pakistan, are being held as illegal combatants without Geneva Convention protections.

Detainees at Guantanamo were taken into custody beginning in early 2002, with some imprisoned now for nearly three years, while others were captured as recently as September of last year.

"Although many of these individuals may never have been close to an actual battlefield and may never have raised conventional arms against the United States or its allies, the military nonetheless has deemed them detainable as 'enemy combatants' based on conclusions that they have ties to the al-Qaeda terror network or other terrorist organisations," the court document said.

The US government has maintained that it is allowed to detain suspects it designates to be enemy combatants until the "war on terror" ends, which is to say indefinitely.

If prosecuted and convicted, enemy combatants would receive fixed terms of incarceration.

In a statement after the ruling, attorneys for the detainees called the court decision a "smashing defeat for the Bush administration" and "a momentous victory for the rule of law, for human rights, and for our democracy".

"Now it's time for this administration to act. We're calling on the White House to cease its tactics," the attorneys said.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12113801%255E1702,00.html