US court orders release of six Guantánamo detainees after seven years

There is no guarantee, however, that the men will be freed. The White House, through the Justice Department, immediately issued a statement disagreeing with the ruling and indicating it may appeal to the US Court of Appeals in Washington, which has generally endorsed the Bush administration's policies. To this day, despite years of litigation, no prisoner at Guantánamo has been released as a result of a judge's order.

More than 200 habeas corpus petitions remain before the US courts. This case, the first to be decided, is a damning exposure and indictment of the Bush administration, which has fought for years to keep the five incarcerated, despite having no evidence that the men, who were arrested in Bosnia in 2001—far from the fighting in Afghanistan—had committed any offense, or even had any intention of doing so.

Having previously opposed their release all the way to the US Supreme Court, the White House fought to the bitter end over the past several months in the District Court for the District of Columbia, filing no fewer than 650 pages of exhibits and a 55-page narrative, all highly classified, to seek to defeat the prisoners' habeas corpus petition.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2008/nov2008/guan-n22.shtml