Press barred from Guantánamo hearings

Deemed “combatant status review tribunals” by the Pentagon, the hearings are intended to determine whether the prisoner can be classified as an “enemy combatant.” The prisoners, accompanied by US government representatives rather than lawyers, will face panels comprising three officers at the hearings. Those designated as enemy combatants can be subjected to military trials at the direction of President George W. Bush. The first of these trials is slated to begin this summer.

The hearings come in the context of last month’s US appeals court ruling denying Guantánamo detainees habeas corpus rights, and the refusal of the Bush administration to sign onto a UN treaty banning secret renditions.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman announced the tribunals with few details, such as which of the 14 men were scheduled to appear first, or an estimate of how long the process would take.

The Associated Press reported that no official statement on the hearings is planned until the government releases a transcript of the proceedings, with material deemed “damaging to national security” redacted. According to Whitman, this currently includes the names of the detainees facing tribunals.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2007/mar2007/guan-m09.shtml