World Skeptical Over Guantanamo Bay Ruling

In this photo, reviewed by a US Department of Defense official, an American flag waves in the breeze behind razor-wire and fences within the compound of Camp Delta military-run prison, at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, Cuba on Tuesday, June 27, 2006. The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that President George W. Bush overstepped his authority in creating military war crimes trials for Guantanamo Bay detainees, a rebuke to the administration and its aggressive anti-terror policies. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley) (Brennan Linsley - AP)

Bob Ayers, a homeland security and intelligence expert at Chatham House, predicted the ruling will have little impact.

"Basically I don't think the decision is going to make any difference. The United States is not going to turn all of these people loose. The EU has not said, 'Send them to us and we'll house them for you.' What is the solution?"

Amnesty International, one of the most vocal critics of the detention center, hailed the ruling.

"Today's Supreme Court ruling blocking the military commissions set up by President George W. Bush is a victory for the rule of law and human rights, the London-based group said.

The former Afghan ambassador to Pakistan under the Taliban, who spent almost four years in Guantanamo before being released in September, said the facility's military tribunals were "an insult to humanity and human rights."

"The Supreme Court must be neutral and must respect human rights. They must give justice," Abdul Salam Zaeef said in the Afghan capital, Kabul. "It was a good decision to condemn Bush's decision, which was not correct, not good."

Lawyers for the handful of detainees who have been charged said the ruling could be the beginning of the end of the prison camp.

"There certainly will be some fallout from this, and it may very well lead to the closing of Guantanamo Bay in the near future," said Army Maj. Tom Fleener, who represents Ali Hamza Ahmad Sulayman al-Bahlul, a Yemeni.

"Just by the court ruling essentially that Guantanamo is not a lawless area and that we have to comply with Geneva Conventions, it's going to change everything from how people are held to interrogation techniques that are used to the types of information they can have or can't have."

British lawmakers said the ruling could force the United States into a firm decision on the remaining prisoners at Guantanamo.

Mike Gapes, chairman of Britain's parliamentary foreign affairs committee, saw three options _ "to release those who can be safely released, to prosecute others within properly and in accordance with U.S law and to send the rest back to their home countries, who can decide whether they should be prosecuted or not."

Jose Diaz, spokesman for U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, welcomed the ruling.

"The decision is a case of restoring the judiciary to its proper place in a system of checks and balances, which is essential in upholding the rule of law," he said.