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Friday, Jul 02, 2004

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International

Guantanamo: White House may face legal chaos

By Suzanne Goldenberg

WASHINGTON, JULY 1. The Bush administration is considering relocating hundreds of Guantanamo prisoners to jails inside the U.S. after the Supreme Court ruling which allows detenus to challenge their incarceration in court.

The verdict opens the gates for what could be a flood of lawsuits on behalf of the 595 men and boys held for more than two years at Guantanamo. Most prisoners do not have legal representation.

Though the nature of those court hearings remained uncertain yesterday, with lawyers for the Justice Department and the detenus still interpreting the Supreme Court ruling, the sheer volume of cases, and the logistics of transporting the lawyers to the rudimentary facilities at the naval base in Cuba, could lead the Bush administration to bring the prisoners on-shore.

Lawyers for the detenus argue that the ruling compels the Government to allow each Guantanamo prisoner to challenge his detention in a civilian court, and not merely before military tribunals.

If that is the case, the White House could find itself in legal chaos.

Because the prisoners are off-shore, lawyers can file their lawsuits in legal jurisdictions across America, prompting the Justice Department to explore ways of consolidating the hearings in a single court — preferably one in a conservative judicial district.

One solution would be to move the Guantanamo prisoners to a military prison in the U.S., bringing them into a single judicial district.

``That is a possibility, that is certainly a possibility, but nothing is even close to being decided,'' Mark Corallo, a Justice Department spokesman, said yesterday.

The idea that the Guantanamo operations could move to the U.S. mainland was reported in yesterday's Los Angeles Times, which said that lawyers for the Pentagon and the Justice Department had been caught off-guard by this week's Supreme Court judgment.

``They didn't really have a specific plan for what to do, case by case, if we lost,'' a Defence Department official said. ``It's astounding to me that these cases have been pending for so long and nobody came up with a contingency plan.''

The newspaper identified two potential prisons that could be used to house the Guantanamo detenus: the army base at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, or Charleston, South Carolina, which holds the naval brig.

Lawyers for the administration were also reported to be considering asking the Congress to designate a single court district to try the cases.

Advocates for the detenus said reports that the Justice Department was searching for a suitably conservative venue seemed credible.

``Given that the court found that there is jurisdiction in the U.S. courts to hear detenu claims at Guantanamo, why not hold them closer to home?'' said Steven Watt, a fellow at the Centre for Constitutional Rights, which represents 70 detenus. ``They could also take them forum shopping, going to a district where they could get favourable rulings from conservative justices.''

Prisoners could also file their writs at a makeshift court in the navy base at Guantanamo.

Some legal experts also believe that the Supreme Court judgment allows the Bush administration to make do with military-style hearings, which could remain at Guantanamo. ``If a military-style process is sufficient, they could stay at Guantanamo. All of this is still being reviewed,'' Mr. Corallo said.

The speculation about `downsizing' at Guantanamo comes at a time when the Pentagon is contemplating a reorganisation at the prison.

But some experts believe it is unlikely that the Guantanamo prisoners will be moved out swiftly. ``The most likely outcome will be that the Government will be forced to provide the detainees with hearings required by Article 5 of the Geneva Convention, which is essentially what the Guantanamo detainees were asking for from the outset,'' said David Cole, of the Georgetown University law school. —

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