US Attorney General Michael Mukasey urged Congress today to write new rules for terrorism suspects to contest their imprisonment, as the first US war crimes trial got underway at Guantanamo Bay.
In a speech to the American Enterprise Institute think tank, Mr Mukasey said new rules were needed to conform with a Supreme Court ruling last month that Guantanamo prisoners have the constitutional right known as "habeas corpus" to challenge their detention in federal court.
Although the Supreme Court settled the question of whether the detainees have that right, the Court "stopped well short of detailing how the habeas corpus proceedings must be conducted,"Mr Mukasey said.
Such proceedings could raise serious national security issues, he said. New rules were needed to minimize burdens on the military, which holds the prisoners, and to protect sources and methods of intelligence gathering.
The trial of Osama bin Laden's former driver, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, began at Guantanamo on Monday. He faces charges of conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism and could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted by a jury of US military officers.
The prison at the Guantanamo Bay US Naval base houses about 265 alleged al Qaeda and Taliban suspects, including accused plotters of the September 11th attacks.
The prison became a lightning rod for anger against and criticism of the United States as detainees, held for years without charge and denied the rights accorded to formal prisoners of war, complained of torture and abuse.
A federal judge last week said the Hamdan trial could go ahead despite the Supreme Court ruling. He held that a 2006 law creating the military commissions allowed challenges to the process only after a trial had taken place.
Mr Mukasey said the Supreme Court decision focused only on the legal process for detainees, rather than whether they can be held, and did not invalidate the military commission system which is trying Hamdan.
"The United States has every right to capture and detain enemy combatants in this conflict, and need not simply release them to return to the battlefield, as indeed some have after their release from Guantanamo," he said.
Congress must make clear that a court cannot order the government to bring detainees into the United States for proceedings. Security requirements would be difficult to meet and it would be better to use video links with Guantanamo for court hearings, he said.
Further, courts should not be able to order a detainee to be released into the United States, he said.
Legislation should protect government secrets in any detainee court challenges, and Congress should make clear the challenges should not delay the trials of detainees charged by the military commissions, he said.
He also asked that Congress funnel the detention challenges through a single district court to avoid duplication and inconsistent rulings.
"Such rules should not provide greater protection than we would provide to American citizens held as enemy combatants in this conflict. And they must ensure that court proceedings are not permitted to interfere with the mission of our armed forces," he said.
REUTERS