Court defies White House with Camp Delta ruling: "'This is a stinging rebuke for the lawless policies of the Bush administration,' said Clive Stafford Smith, a US-based lawyer representing four British citizens and two British residents held at the prison in southeast Cuba.
'The court was unwilling to find that Guantanamo Bay is a law-free zone, as the military had demanded. The court was unwilling to rule that British nationals should not be recognised as human beings, and should not be allowed human rights,' he said.
... Not everyone believes the ruling was a breakthrough. Louise Christian, a London-based lawyer who represents two of the four British citizens held at Guantanamo Bay, said all it had done was address the issue of the courts' jurisdiction. She pointed out that while the court had ruled that Yaser Hamdi should have access to a lawyer, Mr Bush still had the legal authority to hold him without trial.
'I think the Hamdi ruling is very depressing,' she said. 'If they can condone indefinite imprisonment without trial for a US citizen it is hard to think they are going to do any more for a foreigner held at Guantanamo.'"
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