Jawad Case Update

Yesterday U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle ordered the Obama administration to release Guantanamo detainee Mohammed Jawad, who has been imprisoned since December 2002, by August 21, saying there are no legal grounds for continuing to hold him. In the meantime, as I noted on Wednesday, the Justice Department may decide to prosecute him in federal court, in which case he will be transferred to civilian custody. "It is a very real possibility," an unnamed Justice Department official told The New York Times, "but whether we can compile enough evidence to support a case is a question we don't yet know the answer to." Even if they can't, of course, that's not the end of the story. As Pentagon General Counsel Jeh Johnson has explained, once acquitted in federal court, Jawad can still be held in "prolonged detention," unless he files a successful habeas corpus petition (again), at which point the president will either have to send him back to Afghanistan, send him back to civilian custody for a second trial on a different charge, or simply admit that all his talk about due process and the rule of law was just for show.