US judge: Take new approach for Guantanamo cases

A U.S. appeals court judge said it's time for the president and Congress to consider a different approach to the handling of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison, AP reported. Judge Harry T. Edwards made the comment Tuesday at the end of a written opinion in which he reluctantly concurred with a three-judge panel's decision rejecting a Guantanamo prisoner's challenge to his detention. Edwards wrote that the detainee's challenge fails because of the precedent established by the Washington, D.C., Circuit Court of Appeals. But the judge said that when reviewing cases like this one, "I am disquieted by our jurisprudence." In the majority opinion, Judge Thomas Griffith wrote that the detainee was properly detained because he was likely part of an enemy force when he was captured in 2002. --SPA