WASHINGTON (CNN) — A federal judge in the District of Columbia has ruled that alleged terrorists captured on the battlefield and held on a U.S. base in Afghanistan can challenge their detention in U.S. courts. In an opinion Thursday, Judge John Bates ruled these detainees “closely parallel” those held at the detention facility at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Some of the men held at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan have been in U.S. custody for as long as six years.