Two Guantanamo Bay detainees are using President Barack Obama's own words to argue that the US war in Afghanistan is over and therefore they should be set free.
Two court cases from detainees captured in Afghanistan ask federal judges to consider at what point a conflict is over and whether Obama, in a speech last December, crossed that line when he said the US "combat mission in Afghanistan is ending."
The questions are important since the Supreme Court has held that the government may hold prisoners captured during a war for only as long as the conflict in that country continues.
"The lawyers for the detainees are asking the right questions," said Steven Vladeck, a national security law professor at American University. "And what's really interesting is that the government can't quite seem to figure out its answer."
The court challenges are the latest example of the yearslong legal wrangling tied to Guantanamo, whose status as a prison for terror suspects has long defied resolution. Obama promised to close the prison and has transferred out more than half the detainees who were there when he took office in 2009.
In just the last week, six detained Yemenis were relocated to Oman, leaving 116 prisoners.
At its peak, in June 2003, Guantanamo held nearly 700 prisoners. More than 500 were released under President George W. Bush. Obama came into office pledging to close the prison in a year, but Congress stopped him by imposing restrictions on transfers.
Over the last decade, detainees have challenged the military tribunal process used to prosecute them, their treatment behind bars and efforts to force-feed them, among other issues.
The latest arguments, which could presumably be adopted by other detainees captured in Afghanistan, have played out in recent months in the federal court in Washington. No judge has yet ruled, though legal experts say they expect an uphill battle for the detainees, given the deference courts generally afford to the government on matters of national security.
One of the cases was brought by Faez Mohammed Ahmed al-Kandari, a Kuwaiti who was shipped to Guantanamo following his 2001 arrest after the battle of Tora Bora. Another came from Muktar Yahya Najee al-Warafi, a Yemeni whom a judge has determined trained alongside Taliban militants.
The two men, both held without charges, argue that an end to the fighting in Afghanistan means their detentions are now unlawful under the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force. That law provided the legal justification for the imprisonment of foreign fighters captured on overseas battlefields.
