A Guantanamo Bay detainee who says he was waterboarded lost a legal battle Friday when a federal appeals court ruled that the Obama administration can keep information secret that the prisoner wanted to make public.

The decision came in the case of Djamel Ameziane, an Algerian citizen who is seeking his release from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he has been held since 2002.

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In a 3-0 decision, the appeals court said U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle had failed to give substantial deference “to the government’s assessment of its foreign relations and national security interests” if certain information were to be revealed. Huvelle had declared that “I don’t understand how” revealing the information “will interfere in anything.”

Brown and one of the other judges on the appeals panel, Thomas Griffith, are appointees of President George W. Bush. The third member of the panel, Douglas Ginsburg, was appointed by Ronald Reagan.

FULL AP STORY FOLLOWS BELOW