Whats going on with Guantanamo Bay ?

Even as allegations of Koran abuse at the U.S.'s naval base in Cuba were still making headlines, the Pentagon was bracing for a new storm as reporters last week sorted through several thousand pages of transcripts from tribunals in which detainees challenged their designation as enemy combatants. To make sense of the latest Gitmo controversies, here is a look at Guantanamo during the war on terrorism. Since the first 20 prisoners were taken there from Afghanistan in January 2002, the U.S. has used its naval base in Cuba as its main holding area for suspected members of al-Qaeda and the Taliban.The U.S. considers none of the detainees prisoners of war, which means they do not enjoy rights under the Geneva Convention, which protects pows from indefinite imprisonment and aggressive interrogation. Because Guantanamo is on foreign soil—leased from Cuba since 1903—the U.S. has argued that the detainees are beyond the reach of U.S. law. Last June, however, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that prisoners have the right to challenge their captivity in federal court.Over the past three years, 234 detainees have been permitted to leave Gitmo, but 67 were released on the condition that they be held by their home governments, including Pakistan, Britain, Morocco and Saudi Arabia. At least 12 of those set free are believed to have resumed terrorist activities, according to the Defense Department.