End limbo at Guantanamo

Kansas City Star: When the U.S. began detaining terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, it was a reasonable solution to a difficult security problem. But almost two years after the detention center opened, holding what Bush administration officials call "unlawful combatants" has become unacceptable.
The International Red Cross, the only independent group with access to the more than 650 detainees, has been pushing the administration to give the detainees legal due process. Recently, it reported that it has "observed what we consider to be a worrying deterioration in the psychological health of a large number of the internees." Some people have been held for more than 18 months.
A day before the Red Cross report, a group of former U.S. military officers, diplomats, federal judges and others asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the indefinite detentions. The administration argues that the United States still is at war and that the courts shouldn't interfere with military detentions "while American soldiers and their allies are still engaged in armed conflict overseas against an unprincipled, unconventional and savage foe."
The great unknown
That's an apt description of terrorists. But it's not clear how many of the Guantanamo prisoners fit the description. The longer the United States holds these people without giving them the ability to resolve their cases, the more ammunition our enemies have to argue that the United States doesn't care about human rights.
A brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court by 19 former American diplomats made the case well: "Our most important diplomatic asset has been this nation's values." Besides, U.S. failure to treat prisoners fairly may result in other countries abusing American prisoners.
Because the detention center is on a military base the United States leases from Cuba, federal judges say the detainees have no right to challenge their imprisonment in U.S. courts.
Their fate should be determined through some sort of formal procedures. The current system amounts to imprisoning people indefinitely without convicting them of anything.
Guantanamo has become a black eye in the war on terrorism.