Originally the Bush Presidency asserted that captives apprehended in the "war on terror" were not covered by the Geneva Conventions, and could be held indefinitely, without charge, and without an open and transparent review of the justifications for their detention.

[6][9] Scholars at the Brookings Institution, led by Benjamin Wittes, listed the captives still held in Guantanamo in December 2008, according to whether their detention was justified by certain common allegations:[10]

The Detainee election form prepared by his Personal Representative record they met, for fifteen minutes, for a pre-Tribunal interview, at 8:15 am on November 4, 2004, the day before the Tribunal convened.

The Military Commissions Act of 2006 mandated that Guantanamo captives were no longer entitled to access the US civil justice system, so all outstanding habeas corpus petitions were stayed.

On July 18, 2008, Julia Tarver Mason filed a motion to renew Abdul Rahman Shalabi's habeas corpus petition.

[12] The Department of Defense has transferred some captives who had habeas corpus petitions filed on their behalf to the custody of regimes where their lawyers felt their safety would be at risk.

When it reported back, a year later, the Joint Review Task Force classified some individuals as too dangerous to be transferred from Guantanamo, even though there was no evidence to justify laying charges against them.

[21] In May 2008, the Gulf News reported that Abdul Rahman Shalabi and Ahmad Zaid Salem Zuhair were the two remaining captives who have been on the hunger strike that started in August 2005.

[24][25] On November 3, 2009, the Associated Press reported that a recent affidavit from David Wright the chief doctor at Guantanamo, stated Shalabi's weight had dropped to 49 kilograms (108 lb).

[24][25] He describes the most recent officer in charge countermanding the decision to provide screens for the lights that shine in his eyes, and leave him with excruciating headaches.

[21] On June 26, 2015, it was announced that the Periodic Review Board approved Abdul Rahman Shalabi for release from the detention center, and that he can return to Saudi Arabia.