The legal front of the US government's "war on terror" suffered a bad blow on Monday as military judges threw out charges against a Canadian-born al-Qaeda fighter and Osama bin Laden's former driver.
The rulings on Toronto native Omar Ahmed Khadr, 20, and Salim Ahmed Hamdan threatened to torpedo the US government's pursuit of Guantanamo Bay terror suspects through new-look military tribunals.
In both cases, the judges found that they had no jurisdiction to proceed with military commission trials, as neither Khadr nor Hamdan had been classified as an "unlawful enemy combatant" as required by a recent US law.
Khadr was just 15 when he was captured in Afghanistan, accused of killing a US army medic in a hand-grenade attack.
He looked on impassively as Colonel Peter Brownback issued his potentially far-reaching ruling.
"It was very surprising," the defendant's sister, Zaynab Khadr, told reporters in Canada. "But we were very happy to hear the news. I hope he will be released soon."
However, lawyers said that both Khadr and Hamdan will remain in legal limbo at the base in southeast Cuba along with nearly 400 other detainees rounded up or handed over to US forces since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
It was the second major victory for Hamdan, an admitted driver and bodyguard for the al-Qaeda mastermind who was born in Yemen in 1970, after he defeated the government's old tribunal process in a Supreme Court case a year ago.
Major Beth Kubala, spokeswoman for Guantanamo Bay's Office of Military Commissions (OMC), said it would be "speculative" to comment on the rulings' implications for the government.
But she told reporters: "[The] OMC will continue to operate in a manner that's fair, transparent, open and legitimate. If nothing else, today's rulings highlight that the judges operate independently."
Government prosecutors were granted a 72-hour delay while they consider their options for appeal to the Khadr and Hamdan rulings.
However, the appeals court envisioned in the Military Commissions Act (MCA), which was hurriedly passed by Congress last September following the Supreme Court ruling on Hamdan's case, has yet to be created.
"If the administration has any sense at all, this will be the death knell for the commissions," said Jennifer Daskal of Human Rights Watch.
Murder and other charges levied against Khadr were dismissed by Brownback. Late in the evening, US Navy Captain Keith Allred threw out charges of conspiracy and material support for terrorism against Hamdan.
The White House disagreed yesterday with the military judges who threw out the charges, but maintained that special US military tribunals remain appropriate for dealing with foreign terrorism suspects.
"We don't agree with the ruling," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said in Prague where US President George W. Bush began a European tour that will take him to the G8 summit in Germany on Wednesday.
Fratto said that the US Department of Defense had "asked for time" to determine whether it would be "appropriate to make an appeal" of Monday's rulings.
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