Like alcoholics queuing up drinks at closing time, the US administration is pressing charges against prisoners at Guantanamo at a frantic rate.

Nothing about Mohammed Hashim's story suggests that he should be standing trial in a court flagged up by the administration as required to prosecute "the worst of the worst."

According to Human Rights Watch, the intolerable situation and chronic mental health problems that drove three prisoners to commit suicide at Guantanamo prevails to this day.

Those who cherish historical adherence to the rule of law were delighted to hear that the Supreme Court ruled that prisoners at Guantánamo now have the right to challenge the basis of their detention.

The results should be disturbing to anyone who still cherishes the illusion, maintained by the administration, that the Guantanamo prisoners are "the worst of the worst."

Beyond McCain's stunted historical memory, his outburst flies in the face of the evidence that the entire "War on Terror" imprisonment program has been both chronically brutal and irredeemably flawed.

Except Albania, no other country has stepped forward to help the US clean up it own mess by offering asylum to foreign nationals captured by mistake and held for years at Guantánamo.

Parhat v. Gates is another significant challenge to executive overreach. Parhat is one of 18 Uighur detainees who fled persecution in China and was arrested in Pakistan with no evidence against him.