Interesting Op-Ed on Guantánamo Dismissals

Last Monday, two different military judges dismissed the cases of two Guantánamo detainees on procedural grounds: According to last year's Military Commissions Act, military commissions have jurisdiction over offenses committed by unlawful enemy combatants. Yet, up to now Guantánamo detainees have merely been designated "enemy combatants" without further distinction between lawful and unlawful.

JURIST has an interesting op-ed (text, in English) on this topic written by Professor Majorie Cohn. Here is a short extract:

The Bush administration may try to fix the procedural problem and retry Khadr and Hamdan. But regardless of whether Guantánamo detainees are lawful or unlawful enemy combatants, the Bush administration's treatment of them violates the Geneva Conventions. Lawful enemy combatants are protected against inhumane treatment by the Third Geneva Convention on prisoners of war. Unlawful enemy combatants are protected against inhumane treatment by Common Article Three.

Let us see how the Bush administration will react to this recent setback ...