Lawyers for the detainees - mostly Afghans and Pakistanis captured in Afghanistan two years ago - argue the courts have some oversight authority because the United States controls the naval base. They also say the administration has it backward: Under the Geneva Conventions, the detainees are entitled to preliminary "status hearings" to determine whether they are legitimate prisoners of war, unlawful combatants, or civilians accidentally swept up during military action. U.S. forces have conducted status hearings in Iraq and during previous conflicts, Hutson said. By refusing to conduct them at Guantanamo Bay, the United States is setting bad legal precedents in a new kind of war, he said.

"We fight wars to uphold the rule of law, but then we don't uphold the rule of law in our conduct of the war," he said. Until status hearings are held, the detainees must be treated as POWs, with the right to live in barracks together, cook their own food and be repatriated at the end of hostilities, he said.

The Administration has released about 100 of the detainees, and Hutson worries about the selection process:

In some cases, the administration appears to be appeasing its allies, he said. And Rumsfeld has said at least one former detainee has reverted to terrorism. "I'm as concerned about the terrorist who's released as about the goat-herder who will be held indefinitely," Hutson said. "There are no standards, no process. Are we just releasing people willy-nilly? Are we releasing them because they're British, or because they're Danish? I hope not."

Rear Adm. Donald Guter also signed the brief:

"I have absolutely no sympathy for terrorists whatsoever," he said. "We have to win the war on terrorism. But we can't lose our way of life, our civil rights and the rule of law in the process."