"After all, as Napoleon himself was fond of pointing out, `An army marches on its stomach,' " Leon said in issuing the ruling.
Al Bihani is a citizen of Yemen who lived in Saudi Arabia and went to Afghanistan in the spring of 2001 after a sheik issued a fatwa to fight with the Taliban against the Afghan Northern Alliance. He retreated with other Taliban forces after the U.S. began its bombing campaign in October 2001, and eventually surrendered along with other members of his unit and ended up at Guantanamo Bay in 2002.
The case, originally filed as Al Bihani v. Bush, has now automatically been renamed Al Bihani v. Obama since the prisoner claims the president and other military leaders are holding him unlawfully. One of Obama's first acts after taking office last week was to order the Guantanamo Bay prison closed within a year, but it's still undetermined how Al Bihani and the rest of the 244 detainees there will be prosecuted.
Leon said it isn't necessary to fire a weapon against the United States or its coalition partners to be considered an enemy combatant and that Al Bihani's service in feeding the forces is more than enough to fit the definition.
Leon read his ruling in a Washington courtroom with an Arabic translator, while Al Bihani listened on a teleconference from Guantanamo Bay. The line cut off before Leon could finish reading the last few sentences of his decision, including the line about Napoleon, but lasted long enough for Al Bihani to hear that he would not be released.
Al Bihani's public defenders said they would ask for an expedited appeal and would take a rush transcript of the entire ruling down to their client. They said he would be disappointed to hear it.
"He's been locked up for seven-plus years on allegations of being a cook," said attorney Reuben Camper Cahn.
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