In a signal that the Obama administration is preparing a return to military tribunals for detainees at Guantánamo Bay, the Pentagon last week appointed a retired three-star admiral with international law experience to run the war court. Retired Vice Adm. Bruce MacDonald replaces Susan Crawford as Convening Authority for Military Commissions. MacDonald, formerly top legal counsel for the Navy, has repeatedly testified before Congress in support of the tribunal system. (Miami Herald, March 25)

A judge in the US District Court for the District of Columbia on March 24 denied a Yemeni Guantánamo Bay detainee's habeas corpus petition on its merits, allowing the US government to prolong the detention indefinitely. Detainee Makhtar Yahia Naji al Warafi was captured during the 2001-2002 US campaign in Afghanistan and maintains that he was only a medical clinic worker at the time. The US alleges that Pentagon intelligence demonstrates Warafi was a trained jihadist. The order by judge Royce Lamberth cites a classified memorandum containing details of the reasoning, which was filed with the court security officer.

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) announced March 23 that three Guantánamo Bay detainees had been transferred to the country of Georgia. The transfer was approved by unanimous consent of the Guantánamo Review Task Force, an inter-agency group that reviewed several factors regarding the detainees, including security. The identities of the released detainees are being withheld due to security and privacy concerns. The DoJ stated that the US "is grateful to Georgia for its willingness to support US efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay facility." More than 580 detainees have been transferred from Guantánamo Bay since 2002. With the departure of these last three detainees, 183 detainees remain in the military prison.

A judge in the US District Court for the District of Columbia on March 22 ordered the release of a Guantánamo Bay detainee who had been accused of planning the 9-11 attacks. Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a Mauritanian who has been in US custody for over seven years, brought a habeas corpus petition, claiming that he had been tortured in prison and had made confessions under duress. Slahi was once considered a key al-Qaeda leader and prosecutors had sought the death penalty against him. However, a prominent government prosecutor stepped down from the case in protest of the abusive treatment allegedly used against Slahi. The judge's decision is currently classified, although the court suggested that the files will become available at a future date.

The US Supreme Court on March 22 declined to rule in the case known as Kiyemba II, in which the court was asked to consider issues surrounding the transfer of Guantánamo Bay detainees. Lawyers for four Chinese Muslim Uighurs detained at Guantánamo were appealing an April 2009 ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Columbia Circuit, which held that US courts cannot prevent the government from transferring Guantánamo detainees to foreign countries on the grounds that detainees may face prosecution or torture in the foreign country. The case is separate from a case the court remanded to the DC circuit court earlier this month, known as Kiyemba I.

UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism Martin Scheinin on March 9 urged the Obama administration to hold civilian trials for accused 9-11 conspirators, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Scheinin called the military commissions system "fatally flawed" and said that reforming the system would not help. Meanwhile, UN Special Rapporteur on torture Manfred Nowak also argued that the suspects should face a civilian trial.

White House advisers are considering recommending that accused 9-11 co-conspirator Khalid Sheikh Mohammed be tried in a military court rather than through the civilian criminal justice system, according to March 5 reports. The Washington Post reported that President Obama's legal advisers are finishing their review of the Mohammed file, and CNN confirmed that a military tribunal is still an option. Authorities have been unable to decide where to try Mohammed, with many Republicans and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg opposed to holding the trial in a civilian court in Manhattan.

The US Supreme Court on March 1 ordered a lower court to reconsider the case of five Chinese Muslim Uighurs detained at Guantánamo Bay. The court originally granted certiorari in Kiyemba v. Obama to determine whether it is within the power of the judicial branch to order the release of detainees into the US. The court ordered the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to reconsider the case in light of the fact that each of the remaining Uighurs has received an offer of resettlement by another country.