According to the CCR, The "Report on Torture and Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment of Prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba" details systematic physical, psychological, sexual, medical and religious abuse of detainees.

A copy of the report can be downloaded here

The Defense Department memo seemed designed, in part, to quell congressional appetite to reign in the administration. The memo by Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England to all branches of the armed forces was written Friday and reported in Tuesday's editions of the Financial Times. It became public Tuesday morning when two administration officials testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee and asked for legislation that would permit them to proceed with military tribunals, rather than a system that would place more burdens on the prosecution.

We were pleased to see the U.S. Defense Department finally recognize the power of the Supreme Court over prisoners of the military and order the armed forces to follow the Geneva Conventions requirement of decent treatment for all prisoners, even terrorism suspects. It was a real step forward for an administration that tossed aside the Geneva rules years ago and then tried to place itself beyond the reach of the courts.

However, the Pentagon memo released Tuesday claimed, falsely, that its prisoner policies already generally complied with the Geneva Conventions - the sole exception being the military commissions created by President George W. Bush and struck down by the high court. That disingenuousness may have simply been an attempt to save face. If so, it was distressing but ultimately not all that significant. What really matters is that Congress brings the military prisons back under the rule of law, and create military tribunals for terrorism suspects that will meet the requirements of the Constitution and the Geneva Conventions.

Immediately after the court's decision, Bush and members of Congress scrambled to find a face-saving legislative fix that would overcome the illegal procedures of the military commissions.

With that in mind, the president and Congress should focus on rewriting the Bush administration's flawed judicial and detention policies in the war on terror.

The Supreme Court ruling in the case of Hamdan v. Rumsfeld overturns an earlier decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit favorable to the administration. In this particular case, the defendant, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, had admitted to serving as Osama bin Laden's driver and was accused of conspiracy to commit war crimes. Hamdan's "hearing" was one of ten cases that had appeared before the Special Military Commissions. However, the Supreme Court judged that the basic principles of a fair trial would not apply under the current regime, and it invalidated the commissions.

One of the key elements of the Supreme Court's decision was that the rules of evidence were found to be inadequate. The judgment also built on an earlier Supreme Court ruling that the basic principles of habeas corpus applied, because the U.S. had effective authority over the Guantanamo facility. Therefore, Guantanamo detainees had the legal ability to contest their imprisonment in a federal court.

"Four journalists -- from the Charlotte Observer, the Miami Herald and the Los Angeles Times -- who happened to be at Guantanamo on other business and whose reporting could have independently confirmed the Pentagon's version of the suicides were unceremoniously put on a plane home last Wednesday. The Pentagon's rationale -- that it was unfair to allow the reporters to stay, because others who wanted to come and cover the story were being turned away -- is one of those masterpieces of faux logic for which Donald Rumsfeld is justly famous. Wouldn't the solution be to let other journalists in, rather than kick those four out?"

According to the ACLU, a medical report dated April 29, 2003 details an attempt by a detainee to commit suicide by hanging himself with a towel. The detainee fell into a “vegetative state” due to brain injury sustained during the hanging, according to the report. Medical staff at Guantánamo “most strongly advocate[d]” for the detainee’s “earliest return to his home country,” noting that the detainee had a “history of depression” and “his rehabilitation will be long.” The documents do not indicate whether officials followed the recommendations of the medical staff.

Another document details a detainee’s request to write a will. The detainee claimed he did not want to commit suicide, but that “death had been entering his mind lately.” The detainee was allowed to rewrite his will. The document was among several previously undisclosed attachments to a June 2005 Army report by Lt. Gen. Mark Schmidt and Brig. Gen. John Furlow on detainee treatment at Guantánamo.

"There are some who need to be tried in U.S. courts," Bush said. "They're cold-blooded killers. They will murder somebody if they're let out on the street. And yet, we believe there's a -- there ought to be a way forward in a court of law, and I'm waiting for the Supreme Court of the United States to determine the proper venue in which these people can be tried."

A June 21 editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle by two lawyers representing Guantanamo detainees strongly endorsed the idea of using the US Courts, noting "Already, the vast majority of detainees at Guantanamo have a case pending in court. Many of these cases have been pending for more than a year and a half and would be proceeding normally if the Defense Department had not intervened in January, prompting the courts to stay all proceedings."

According to the article, Bush said he was awaiting a Supreme Court decision about how terrorism suspects there could be tried: "I'd like to close Guantanamo, but I also recognize that we're holding some people there that are darn dangerous and that we better have a plan to deal with them in our courts."

A previous plan for how to deal with Guantanamo detainees in the courts was put forward by the Supreme Court several in the summer of 2004. Perhaps Bush should consult the court docket.

David Hicks won the right to claim citizenship in the High Court in December because his mother was born in Britain. If Britain does get involved, things will seem more promising for Hick, who thus far has gotten no help from the Australian government. Britain has already secured the release of all nine British citizens who were held at the U.S. prison camp in Cuba.