U.S. uses stringent detainee definition

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is taking the narrowest possible view of legal rights the Supreme Court gave to terrorism detainees while trying to fend off any new court challenges. Ultimately the high court probably will weigh in again, lawyers said.

A trio of Supreme Court rulings in June rejected much of the administration's argument that it had power to detain possible terrorists for as long as necessary without charges or trial or access to the outside world.

Some of what the court said is ambiguous, and the justices did not spell out how the government must comply. The government's response is playing out in several ways, and government lawyers have not yet shown all their cards.

Perhaps most important, the administration staked a bold position in federal court that would erase much of what lawyers for foreign-born men held at a Navy prison camp in Cuba thought they had won in the Supreme Court.

"Their position is these people have no rights, which is preposterous . . . in the face of very clear decisions from the Supreme Court," said Jeffrey Fogel, legal director for the Center for Constitutional Rights and a lawyer representing detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison.

More than a dozen lawsuits on behalf of scores of prisoners are now before federal judges, but government lawyers have signaled in court papers that they will try to get the suits thrown out quickly.

The foreign-born prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp are not protected by the Constitution, or by various treaties and international laws, the government said.

No matter how the cases come out, appeals are almost certain to reach the Supreme Court, said Ronald Allen, a constitutional law professor at Northwestern University. He predicted that the White House would defend the current hard line, no matter who wins the presidential election in November.

In a related move, the military organized new hearings at the Guantanamo Bay camp within weeks of the Supreme Court rulings. Government lawyers hope the review panels will satisfy the Supreme Court's demand that prisoners have a way to contest their captivity and present evidence in their defense.

The hearings are run by Pentagon officials without lawyers present. In some instances, the detainees have refused to participate.

If the government can persuade a judge that the review panels are sufficient, it could head off the challenges in federal court on behalf of the same prisoners.

In all the decisions announced so far, Pentagon reviewers have concluded that detainees were properly classified as "enemy combatants" who should remain behind bars.

In a process separate from any of the Supreme Court cases, the Pentagon is nearly ready to hold the first military tribunals for terrorism suspects. Preliminary hearings for four men are set for Tuesday at Guantanamo Bay.

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