IS DICK CHENEY SECRETLY RUNNING THE WHITE HOUSE?:

W.H. challenges court orders on Gitmo (JOSH GERSTEIN, 5/14/09, Politico)

The Obama administration is trying to overturn court orders requiring that lawyers for Guantanamo detainees receive full access to information being used by a presidential task force charged with reviewing prisoner detention at the base in Cuba.

In court filings late Tuesday and early Wednesday, at least six government officials, including Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta, urged reversal of the orders. The officials argued that the task force, set up by President Barack Obama in January, would effectively have to suspend work to fulfill the information requests, which could aid about 200 detainees pressing habeas corpus cases seeking release.

Existing court orders insisting that task force lawyers search for exculpatory information about detainees “could grind the progress of the reviews to a virtual halt,” Justice Department attorneys James Gilligan and Terry Henry wrote in a brief filed just before midnight Tuesday.