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From the NY Times, Supreme Court is Asked to Block Terror Tribunals:

Lawyers for a Guantánamo detainee asked the Supreme Court on Monday to consider blocking military tribunals for terror suspects, and to overturn what they called an extreme ruling by Judge John G. Roberts Jr., President Bush's nominee for the Supreme Court.

Judge Roberts was on a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that ruled last month against the detainee, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni who was Osama bin Laden's driver in Afghanistan.

Mr. Hamdan's lawyers said in their filing that the appeals panel had rejected longstanding constitutional and international law.

"Its decision vests the president with the ability to circumvent the federal courts and time-tested limits on the executive," wrote Neal K. Katyal, a law professor at Georgetown University who represents Mr. Hamdan. "No decision, by any court, in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has gone this far."

The Pentagon maintains that it has the authority to hold military commissions, or tribunals, for terror suspects who, like Mr. Hamdan, were captured overseas and are now being held at the American naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

A lower court judge ruled against the government, but Judge Roberts and two colleagues overruled him. Their ruling was handed down shortly before Judge Roberts was nominated for the Supreme Court, to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who is retiring.

The appeals court held that the 1949 Geneva Conventions governing prisoners of war did not apply to Al Qaeda and its members.

Mr. Hamdan's lawyers said that ruling was sweeping and "held that the president has the power to decide how a detainee is classified, ... how he is treated, what criminal process he will face, what rights he will have, who will judge him, how he will be judged, upon what crimes he will be sentenced and how the sentence will be carried out."

Mr. Hamdan, who was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001, denies conspiring to engage in acts of terrorism and denies he was a member of Al Qaeda. His trial was halted last fall when a district court ruled that Mr. Hamdan could not be tried by an American military commission unless a "competent tribunal" determined first that he was not a prisoner of war under the Geneva Conventions.

Ali Saleh Kahlah Marri, alleging mistreatment (Reuters)

From the Washington Post, U.S. Holding Talks On Return of Detainees ("The Bush administration is nearing agreements with 10 Muslim governments to return their detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, part of an effort to quicken the pace of transfers and increase the role of countries whose nationals are alleged terrorists. Washington hopes to conclude the agreements within the next two months, a senior State Department official said. The United States is also pressing to persuade a European country to accept at least 15 Chinese Uigurs and two Uzbeks ready to be released, but who will not be returned to their home countries for fear they might be abused or tortured, the official said. Sweden last year turned down a request, a Swedish envoy said yesterday. Uigurs are a Muslim ethnic group with a large population in western China."); Detainee's Suit Alleges Mistreatment in Brig ("An alleged enemy combatant who has been held in U.S. military custody for more than two years filed a lawsuit yesterday alleging that he has suffered "inhumane, degrading and physically and psychologically abusive treatment" in a military brig in South Carolina. The 30-page complaint by Ali Saleh Kahlah Marri provides a rare glimpse into one of the most secretive facets of the U.S. government's anti-terrorism strategy, which includes a variety of detention tactics aimed at holding suspected terrorists outside the traditional U.S. criminal justice system.").

From USA Today, Detainee from Qatar Sues Over Treatment.

Categories: Guantanamo, Detainees, Marri, Hamdan, SCOTUS, Newspapers