[5] 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.

Following the Supreme Court's ruling the Department of Defense set up the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants.

[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] A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared his Combatant Status Review Tribunal on November 19, 2004.

[17]The New York Times called the two rulings: "the first clear-cut victories for the Bush administration", while Andy Worthington noted they represented a "disturbing development".

[20] Reuters reported that Jonathan Hafetz of the American Civil Liberties Union responded that:[19] This decision raises serious concerns given the reliance on classified evidence and the very broad definition of detention authority that it contains.

[19]On April 25, 2011, whistleblower organization WikiLeaks published formerly secret assessments drafted by Joint Task Force Guantanamo analysts.