detainees

The Washington Post has an editorial arguing that some progress has finally been made on closing Guantanamo. The Post writes that the Senate voted this month "to preserve language in the pending National Defense Authorization Act that would ease restrictions on repatriating Guantanamo detainees and allow their transfer to the United States for trial, detention or medical treatment." However, The Post reports that the defense bill is in danger of not passing for the first time in 51 years.

Overall, "a legal regime will be needed for the arrest, interrogation and long-term detention of foreign terrorist suspects who cannot be handled by the domestic U.S. justice system" after Guantanamo is closed, The Post concludes.

 U.S. military action in Afghanistan will be over next year. "Blocked by Congress from releasing or transferring many of the remaining 164 detainees and able to try only a small number of them, administration officials are examining whether the withdrawal of U.S. troops at the end of 2014 could open the door for some to challenge the legal authority of the United States to continue to imprison them," The Washington Post reports. At issue is whether the authority to detain prisoners as belligerents and enemy combatants expires if the "hot war" is over.

ALM's The Legal Times reports on en banc arguments held yesterday "in a case that could undo a terrorism conviction and reshape how the government prosecutes criminal charges against other detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba."