Court Win For Bush On Detainees

(CBS/AP)  A federal appeals court put the Bush administration's military commissions for terrorist suspects back on track Friday, saying a detainee at the Guantanamo Bay prison who once was Osama bin-Laden's driver can stand trial.

A three-judge panel ruled 3-0 against Salim Ahmed Hamdan, whose case was halted by a federal judge on grounds that commission procedures were unlawful.

"Congress authorized the military commission that will try Hamdan," said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The protections of the 1949 Geneva Convention do not apply to al Qaeda and its members, so Hamdan does not have a right to enforce its provisions in court, the appeals judges said.

"This is a win for the government because it allows military officials to continue to conduct those tribunal proceedings down in Cuba," says CBSNews.com Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen. "But the ruling doesn't resolve all of the outstanding issues that have been raised down there and it certainly doesn't mean we've seen the end of litigation on the topic."

U.S. District Judge James Robertson ruled last year that Hamdan could not be tried by a military commission until a competent tribunal determined that he was not a prisoner of war.

"We believe the military commission is such a tribunal," said the appeals court.

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