U.S. Reviews Gitmo Combatant Hearings

A Guantanamo detainee closes a door at the detention facility on Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2007. Many of the detainees at Guantanamo have been held since 2002. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley) (Brennan Linsley - AP)

"It's an acknowledgment that if there is new evidence or a new thing to take into bearing, in the spirit of being an open and fair process, we have to take that into consideration," said Fessel, of the Pentagon's Office of Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants.

He said he did not know how many of the roughly 330 detainees currently held at Guantanamo Bay on suspicion of links to terrorism, al-Qaida or the Taliban might face new hearings.

Once detainees are deemed enemy combatants, they face review boards once a year that assess whether they still pose a threat or have intelligence value, and recommend whether they should be transferred, released or continue to be detained. Assistant Secretary of Defense Gordon England determined after last year's hearings that 328 men should continue to be detained and 55 should be transferred.

The commander of the detention center, Navy Rear Adm. Mark H. Buzby, said Wednesday that its population will likely continue to shrink until slightly more than 200 detainees remain _ "the real hard-core people that are very unrepentant, committed jihadists."

But critics said the system will remain unfair as long as the evidence is kept secret.

"Enough is enough _ the military has had nearly six years to formulate, adapt and fix the proceedings at Guantanamo," said Gitanjali Gutierrez of the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, whose many attempts to challenge the detentions have been blocked by the Bush administration.

Separately, the military filed an attempted murder charge against a Guantanamo detainee who allegedly threw a hand grenade into a vehicle carrying two American soldiers and an interpreter in Afghanistan in 2002, according to documents released Thursday. Mohammed Jawad has denied the accusation.

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(This version CORRECTS that a single murder charge, not multiple charges, was filed against detainee Mohammed Jawad.)