Mark P. Denbeaux, a counsel to two of the Guantanamo detainees and Seton Hall University law professor has released a second short report (pdf) about the military justice system used in Guantanamo Bay.

The first report (pdf) found that detainees are held based on accusations of being a "Fighter for …" (8%), a "Member of …" (30%) or "Associated with …" (60%) various "terrorist organizations".  (It also found that only 5% of these detainees were captured by U.S. forces. 86% of the detainees were caught by either Pakistan or the Northern Alliance and turned over to the U.S. at a time when the U.S. offered large bounties.)

The second report looks into the definition of "terrorist organisation" as used by the military to determine the "fighter / member / associate" status.

The Department of Defense has a list of 72 "terrorist organisation". Being "associated with" any of these groups is sufficient to be denied release by a status review tribunal, i.e. to be kept in Guantanamo.

But interestingly, 52 entries on the DoD "terrorist organizations" list are not on the lists used by the Patriot Act Terrorist Exclusion List or any State Department list of "terrorist organisations". Anybody "associated with" or even a "member of" or "fighter for" one of these 52 groups could thereby legally enter the United States unless there is another reason to deny entry.

Looking reverse the Patriot Act Terrorist Exclusion List and other State Department lists taken together (inconsistent with each other as well) have 119 destinct entries. But the DoD is using a shorter list with only 72 entries. Are the military tribunals soft on terrorism?

Denbeaux’s conclusion:

This inconsistency leads to one of two equally alarming conclusions: either the State Department is allowing persons who are members of terrorist groups into the country or the Defense Department bases the continuing detention of the alleged enemy combatants on a false premise.

Additional conclusions are that all these lists are to a large extend bullshit and that the U.S. has some serious administration dysfunction syndromes.