Then it's a good thing that we know that everyone in Guantanamo is a confirmed terrorist and that the U.S. government never makes any mistakes when it decides who is and isn't a terrorist.
Well, except for Sami al-Haj, an Al-Jazeera cameraman who was detained at the Afghanistan-Pakistan border while crossing with a fellow Al Jazeera journalist. He was kept in an Afghan prison for six months, and then sent to Guantanamo, where he has spent the last six years. He has never been interrogated about terrorists or Al Quaeda, simply about the operations of Al Jazeera. He has never been charged with any crime.
Oh, and then there is Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri. He was legally in the U.S. on a student visa when he was arrested in Peoria, Illinois for credit card fraud. President Bush canceled his trial, declared him an enemy combatant, and sent him to Guantanamo. He has been there for four years, has been tortured, and never charged with any crime.
And how about Maher Ahar? He's a Canadian citizen who was detained at JFK airport while in transit between the U.S. and Canada. He was then shipped to Syria, where he was tortured for ten months. Turns out, he wasn't the right guy. Ooops!
Let's not forget Khaled el-Masri. He's a German citizen, arrested while on vacation in Macedonia, bounced around prisons around the world, and tortured by the CIA. Another case of mistaken identity. What are the odds?
And the plaintiff in the Supreme Court case, Lakhdar Boumediene, was a Bosnian citizen living in Bosnia who was arrested at the request of the U.S. government on suspicion of plotting to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo. The Bosnian Supreme Court found him innocent and ordered his release. He was promptly picked up by U.S. forces in Bosnia and sent to Guantanamo. He has not been charged with a crime.
I think the point is made - mistakes happen. This is why the burden is always on the government to justify detaining someone, not the detained's burden to show why they should be let go. That's what habeas corpus is about, and is all that the Supreme Court's decision allows. What the Bush administration is claiming is the right to detain anyone, anywhere, for any length of time, without charging them, and without the accused having the right to challenge his or her detention. That is profoundly un-American, and to claim otherwise is unpatriotic.