Court Finds Gitmo Prisoner not an 'Enemy Combatant'

clipped from www.mcclatchydc.com A federal appeals court has rejected the military's designation of a Guantanamo detainee as an enemy combatant in its first such review. The decision, which was handed down Friday, was announced Monday in a short notice posted on the Web site of U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, but the full ruling was not released and was still being vetted for classified information. It was unclear when the ruling would be available. The announcement said a three-judge panel had determined that a military tribunal's conclusion that prisoner Huzaifa Parhat could be detained at Guantanamo because he was an enemy combatant was "invalid," but did not say why it had found that it was invalid. The court said the Pentagon must either release or transfer Parhat or hold a new tribunal hearing "consistent with the court's opinion."

Of course, the real question is how long this guy had to rot at Guantanamo before he got a chance to prove he didn't belong there.

This is exactly the sort of situation that habeas corpus was meant to deal with.