The judge is right, and it's very simple, really.
The US claimed jurisdiction to detain these people, so the US must give them their day in court.
This is the result in the US not actually declaring war. They just passed a 'resolution'. These detainees were arrested as INDIVIDUALS, not legitimate prisoners of war as soldiers of their respective countries like they WOULD have been had Congress actually passed a Declaration of War as per the Constitution.
Now, our country is left trying to defend itself in its own legal system for totally illegal acts JUST because our government didn't have the guts to name names in the 'War on Terror'.
The news story lacks sufficient information to make the call. There was a pair of cases decided by SCOTUS a couple years ago, relating to US Citizens who were detained by the military, in Iraq, who were not given access to have their cases decided by a US civilian court. The difference was, IIRC, that they were being held by "coalition forces."
Found the case I was thinking of. Munaf v Geren, decided Aug 27, 2008.
The habeas statute, 28 U. S. C. §2241(c)(1), applies to persons held "in custody under or by color of the authority of the United States."
Application of the case is far from clear, however. After it was handed down, detainees and the government came to diametrically opposite conclusions in applying Munaf to the Uighurs.
The Munaf decision could figure prominently in the Circuit Court’s review of [do federal judges have any authority to issue orders of any kind to limit or delay the Defense and State Departments from sending a detainee to another country, after the Pentagon decides not to keep an individual confined at Guantanamo?] The detainees’ lawyers, among other arguments, have told the Circuit Court that Munaf in no way disturbs — and even confirms — the power of federal judges to assure detainees that, before they are subjected to detention somewhere beyond Guantanamo or have to face the prospect of torture in another country, they get a chance to object in court, with some chance of protection. And government lawyers have argued that Munaf makes clear that decisions about transfers of detainees out of Guantanamo are a matter for Executive Branch decision, without any “second-guessing†by the courts.