WASHINGTON - The White House must work with Congress on a new system for trying terror suspects after a military court threw out charges against two Guantanamo Bay inmates, top Democrats said Tuesday.
Monday's surprise rulings on Toronto native Omar Ahmed Khadr, 20, and Osama bin Laden's ex-driver Salim Ahmed Hamdan dealt a new blow to the Bush administration's troubled "war on terror" legal strategy.
Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the judgements showed once again that US government arrangements set up to try terror suspects were "flawed."
"Every time this administration has been called upon to create a workable and fair system, it responded by seeking to remove judicial review and discretion and narrow the procedures even further," he said.
"I hope this time the administration will work with us to create a better system."
Leahy and Republican Senator Arlen Specter have introduced legislation that would restore the writ of habeas corpus to terror suspects, allowing them the right to go to court and challenge their detention.
The US Supreme Court in April handed the Bush administration a key victory in its anti-terrorist legal strategy, by ruling dozens of Guantanamo Bay inmates had no right to challenge their detention in federal court.
The petition was filed on behalf of inmates who have little prospect of facing formal charges, a tribunal or a return to their home countries.
Senate majority leader Harry Reid meanwhile said he would be happy to open debate on a bill restoring habeas corpus, which opponents of the Bush administration say is a fundamental tenet of US justice.
In both cases heard at the Guantanamo Bay camp on Monday, judges found they had no jurisdiction to proceed with military commission trials, as neither Khadr nor Hamdan had been classified as an "unlawful enemy combatant."
06/05/2007 20:38 GMT