Half A Loaf

The New York Times reports that “[a] federal appeals court ordered the government yesterday to turn over virtually all its information on Guantanamo detainees who are challenging their detention, rejecting an effort by the Justice Department to limit disclosures and setting the stage for new legal battles over the government’s reasons for holding the men indefinitely.”

The Court though didn’t really order disclosure of “virtually all” government information. The government must turn over the information which is “reasonably available.”

“[D]etainees’ lawyers … said the ruling created the likelihood of fresh legal battles over what information in the government’s vast intelligence files was covered, and whether the government in fact produces all its information dealing with specific detainees.”

Seems to me that the Court has merely shifted the battleground, at least for the next year and a half that Alberto Gonzales is running the Justice Department. What do you think his staff will determine is “reasonably available?”