Arguments heard on Gitmo detainees

WASHINGTON, Aug. 24 (UPI) -- U.S. military prosecutors argued Friday that classifying Guantanamo detainees simply as enemy combatants is a minor “judicial stall.”

Prosecutors were appealing a June ruling that detainees could not be tried because they had not been declared unlawful enemy combatants, a requirement of a 2006 law, The New York Times reported.

Defense lawyers argue that the semantic problem shows the entire system of handling and classifying detainees at Guantanamo has no legal basis.

“This is about the credibility of the United States and the perception around the world of our commitment to the rule of law,” Lt. Cmdr. William C. Kuebler, a lawyer for the detainees, said after the hearing. “This is a lawless process.”

The judge, Peter Brownback III, is also an Army officer. He ruled in June that Omar Ahmed Khadr, a Canadian taken prisoner in Afghanistan when he was 15, had never been found to be an unlawful combatant.