Thomas Wilner, representing the 12 Kuwaitis, said the prisoners are seeking "the most modest of rights...we want access to an impartial tribunal." A U.S. district judge ruled four months ago in favor of the Justice Department, which argued that because the prisoners are held outside the United States they do not fall under the jurisdiction of federal courts. The December 2 appeal calls on the court to "recognize Guantánamo Bay for what it is: a fully American enclave with ‘the basic attributes of full territorial sovereignty.’"

The U.S. government continues to occupy the Guantánamo base at the eastern end of Cuba against the will of the Cuban people and government.

Washington is holding nearly 600 detainees there from some 40 countries, none of whom have been allowed to see their families or have access to an attorney.

The Pentagon has labeled the men "unlawful combatants," refusing to recognize them as prisoners of war, a classification that would require its actions to be judged according to the 1949 Geneva Convention.

Held at Camp X-Ray at Guantánamo, the prisoners were captured by the U.S. military in Pakistan and Afghanistan in the months after September 11.

U.S. imperialist forces transported their captives in the freezing holds of military cargo planes, under sedation and with hoods or blacked-out goggles over their eyes, and held the prisoners in chicken-wire cages exposed to the sun and rain, with one-inch thick foam mats as beds, constantly handcuffed and shackled.

Hoping to blunt some of the international outcry against the conditions at the Guantánamo concentration camp, the U.S. brass claims morale has increased since they expanded the detainees’ exercise time to 20 minutes per week. Pointing to the 8-by-6.8-foot cells, Army colonel John Perrone told journalists on a December 3 tour of the camp, "You see, there’s plenty of room to move around."

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Sergio Vieira de Mello, offered a mild rebuke of U.S. denial of basic human rights to the prisoners, calling on Washington to put them on trial or release them to judicial authorities in their home countries. "It is the legitimate right of any government, including and in particular the United States, to do all it can to gather information [on terrorism]," he said, "but how long can you keep a person in legal limbo?"  
 
U.S. citizen wins right to see lawyer
Held for six months as an "enemy combatant" at a Navy brig in Charleston, South Carolina, José Padilla, a U.S. citizen, scored a victory December 4 when a federal judge in Manhattan ruled that he had the right to meet an attorney.

Judge Michael Mukasey pointed out that "Padilla’s need to consult with a lawyer is obvious. He is held incommunicado at a military facility. His lawyer has been told that there is no guarantee that even her correspondence to him would get through."

But Mukasey affirmed the government’s power to hold Padilla, who goes by the name Abdullah al-Muhajir.

The judge agreed with Washington’s claims that the president can order the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens by declaring them "enemy combatants," ruling that it was "logically and legally" sound and needed only to meet the minimal standard of providing "some evidence" to back up the president’s decision.  
 
 
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