Federal judge orders release of 5 Guantanamo detainees
« Thread Started on Nov 20, 2008, 2:37pm »

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Federal judge orders release of 5 Guantanamo detainees
Posted: 12:41 PM ET
By Terry Frieden
CNN
WASHINGTON (CNN) — A federal judge Thursday ordered the release of five
detainees at Guantanamo Bay, saying the government had failed to show they were
what federal prosecutors called “enemy combatants.”Judge Richard Leon issued the order in the case of six detainees who had
challenged their detention all the way to the Supreme Court. In June, the high
court ruled the men were entitled to challenge their continued detention and
sent the case back to a lower court.

Thursday, Leon ruled that five of the six should be released, because the
government failed to show by a preponderance of evidence that any of them –
other than one man identified as bin Saeed — had planned to travel to
Afghanistan to take up arms against the United States and its allies, as the
government claimed.

Claims by a single source against five of the men brought up questions of
credibility, reliability and corroboration, the judge said.

The government had provided, however, sufficient evidence against the
sixth man, bin Saeed, the judge ruled.