The Pentagon will move ahead as quickly as possible with special US military trials of two Guantanamo Bay prisoners after a court validated the proceedings, and will bring charges against eight more detainees, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said.
Mr Rumsfeld hailed last Friday's federal appeals court ruling as a vindication of the Bush administration's approach. The court ruled that the military commission trials of foreign terrorism suspects were lawful, reversing a decision of a lower court.
Major Michael Shavers, a Pentagon spokesman, said Mr Rumsfeld was referring to the cases of Australian David Hicks and Yemeni Salim Ahmed Hamdan, two of the four prisoners at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, already charged with crimes in the military commission process.
Special panels of US military officers will try the men.
The two others charged are Ali Hamza Ahmed Sulayman al Bahlul of Yemen and Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi of Sudan, whose cases currently are embroiled in questions over who will serve as their lawyers.
During a joint news conference with visiting Australian Prime Minister John Howard, Mr Rumsfeld said the Pentagon will prepare criminal charges against eight other people, whose names and nationalities he did not identify. In addition,
Mr Rumsfeld said the Pentagon will prepare recommendations to President George W. Bush to make "additional individuals" held at Guantanamo eligible for such trials.
Twelve men held at Guantanamo have been designated as eligible for trial before military commissions, a concept being used by the United States for the first time since World War II. Three additional men previously were on the list, but have since been sent to their home countries.