[JURIST] Senior US military and Justice Department officials defended Guantanamo prison and US policy towards terror detainees Wednesday at a Senate Judiciary Committee [official website] hearing. Citing continued uncertainty about their status, Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) urged Congress to define the legal rights [AP report] of the detainees, complaining that legislation he introduced in 2002 on the matter went nowhere. Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE), who previously called for the government to close Guantanamo [JURIST report], challenged Deputy Associate Attorney General J. Michael Wiggins with concerns that the government would hold prisoners there indefinitely. No representatives of the rights groups which have repeatedly deplored US detention practices at the facility testified in today's proceeding. The Senate has complete testimony transcripts. Reuters has more.