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GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba - Judges in the US war crimes tribunals at Guantanamo dropped all charges against the only two captives facing trial, rulings that could preclude trying any of the 380 prisoners any time soon.
The judges said they lacked jurisdiction under the strict definition of those subject to trial under a law the US Congress drafted last year.
The charges did not affect US authority to hold foreign prisoners at the Guantanamo detention and interrogation camp in southeast Cuba.
But it was the latest setback for the Bush administration's efforts to put the Guantanamo detainees through some form of judicial process. It was forced to rewrite the rules last year after the US Supreme Court deemed the old tribunals illegal.
Charges were also dropped against Salim Ahmed Hamdan of Yemen, who is accused of driving and guarding Osama bin Laden. Hamdan last year won a US Supreme Court challenge that scrapped the first Guantanamo tribunal system.
"It's not a technicality. It's another demonstration that the system simply doesn't work," said the tribunal's chief defence counsel, Marine Col. Dwight Sullivan. "Fundamentally it is a system of justice that does not comport with American values."
The judge said a military review board had labelled Khadr an "enemy combatant" during a 2004 hearing in Guantanamo. But the Military Commissions Act adopted by the US Congress in 2006 said only "unlawful enemy combatants" could be tried in the Guantanamo tribunals.
Brownback said Khadr did not meet that strict definition because there had been no formal proceeding designating him as unlawful.
Because none of the 380 foreign captives held at Guantanamo have been designated in that way, lawyers said they could not be tried unless they first faced proceedings reclassifying them as unlawful enemy combatants.
Brownback dismissed the charges against Khadr, but left open the possibility that charges could be re-filed if Khadr went back before a review board and was formally reclassified.
This was the latest setback for the Bush government's efforts to put the Guantanamo detainees through some form of judicial process. It was forced to rewrite the rules last year after the US Supreme Court deemed the old tribunals illegal.
Khadr, who was captured in a firefight in Afghanistan at age 15, was accused of killing a US soldier with a grenade and wounding another in a battle at a suspected al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan in 2002.
He was also charged with conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism along with murder, attempted murder and spying, for allegedly conducting surveillance of US military convoys in Afghanistan.
Khadr, now 20 and said by his family to be in poor health, wore a tan prison uniform and a shaggy beard during the brief hearing and showed no reaction to the surprise ruling.
Khadr's sister, Zaynab Khadr, told CBC television in Canada, the ruling was surprising. "Nobody expected it .... I hope my brother can come home."
Halt to trials urged
One of the prosecutors, Army Capt. Keith Petty, said Khadr clearly met the definition of an unlawful combatant because he fought for al Qaeda, which was not part of the regular, uniformed armed forces of any nation.
He said he was prepared to produce a video of Khadr wearing civilian clothes while planting a roadside bomb, as evidence he was an unlawful combatant.
But Brownback said the 2006 law authorising the tribunals barred him from proceeding unless Khadr was formally declared to be unlawful.
Congress wrote the law after the US Supreme Court struck down an earlier version of the tribunals established by President George W. Bush to try terrorism suspects at Guantanamo.
Brownback gave prosecutors 72 hours to appeal his ruling, but the appeals court authorised under the 2006 law has not been set up and it was unlikely it could be created that quickly.
Sullivan said that rather than putting the 380 prisoners through another review to change their status, the United States should scrap the military tribunals and move the trials to the regular US federal courts, he said.
"We don't need any more evidence that it's a failure," Sullivan said. "This system should just stop."
Another prisoner, Salim Ahmed Hamdan of Yemin, was scheduled to appear before a different military judge on Monday for arraignment on charges of conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism. That judge was expected to drop the charges against Hamdan, who is accused of driving Osama bin Laden and acting as his bodyguard.
- REUTERS
