Judge denies hearing for prisoners

WASHINGTON -- A federal judge ruled Wednesday that two British citizens and an Australian captured in Afghanistan and held in Cuba have no right to trial before U.S. courts.

Britons Shafiq Rasul and Asif Iqbal and Australian David Hicks are being held at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to the government. They were captured while fighting with Taliban and al-Qaida forces, U.S. officials allege.

The men's families hired lawyers in the United States who sued the Bush administration, demanding that the men be allowed to argue their case before a federal judge.

But U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled that the U.S. legal system has no jurisdiction over detainees held in Cuba.

In so doing, she rejected plaintiffs argument that "our leased military bases abroad which continue under the sovereignty of foreign nations, hostile or friendly, are functionally 3/8 equivalent to being land borders or ports of entry of the United States or otherwise within the United States."

Federal prosecutors had worried that a victory by the foreign nationals would lead to other lawsuits by detainees held in Cuba.

The judge also struck down arguments that the detained men should have the same right to U.S. courts as Cuban citizens who have requested political asylum and gained entry into the United States.

In November, President Bush and his administration ordered the detainees held and not accorded protections as prisoners of war.