U.S. ordered to turn over Gitmo files

WASHINGTON, July 20 (UPI) -- A federal appeals court has ordered the Bush administration to turn over virtually all its files on detainees at Guantanamo, Cuba.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington Friday rejected the Justice Department's effort to limit information it must provide the court and lawyers for the detainees, who are challenging the legality of their detention, The New York Times reported.

The ruling sets up new legal battles over the administration's policy of holding the detainees indefinitely, the newspaper said.

The judges found that meaningful review of tribunals set up by the Pentagon to determine whether terror suspects should be held as enemy combatants would be impossible without access to "all the evidence."

P. Sabin Willett, a lawyer for the detainees, called the ruling "a resounding rejection of the government's effort to hide the truth."

A Justice Department spokesman told the Times the department was "reviewing the decision's implications and evaluating our options."

The ruling came in the first case brought under a 2005 law that provides for appeals court review of the tribunals at Guantanamo.

Two military judges ruled in June that there were legal defects in the process through which detainees were declared enemy combatants, the newspaper said.