Well this was not the news story that I was expecting to come out of the administration on the heels of the release of Ron Suskind's book (see post below)...
but as the Hamdan trial goes into the second day of "jury" deliberations I am reminded of the one constant in the last eight years and an aspect of the administration that I have often held as our last and greatest hope.. the ineptitude of this administration. Seems the Prosecution just realized that they had not put in any evidence to support the jury instruction for "war crimes." The issue is that military battles are not war crimes, war crimes include things like purposely attacking civilians, attacking religious institutions... you know.... all the things we (the U.S.) have been doing.
Well it seems the prosecution at most proved that there were two missiles in one of the cars that Hamdan was driving (that info was of course forced out of Hamdan under the torture techniques that we copied from the Soviets and North Koreans... but that is besides the point according to the military judge).... missiles that were not targeting civilians but, if the prosecution is correct were supposed to be used to shoot down military planes.
Problem is, EVEN if that is true that is not a war crime but what we more commonly refer to as...WAR.
Fortunately the "Jury" did not let that little "technicality" I described above to get in the way of finding Hamdan guilty of something. Also please see the comment below by the talking dog
reminding us that the charge that the "jury" found Hamdan guilty of was not even a law on the books until five years after Hamdan arrived at Guantanamo.
Click on the title to read the Miami Herald story. I am also providing this link to the Miami Herald Archives which hosts many of the legal documents (including the jury instructions) for the Military Commission process and other documents on the detainees.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/06/washington/07gitmo.html?hp
The kangaroo court GTMO way actually acquitted Hamdan of "conspiracy", but at least it found Mr. Hamdan guilty of something... in this case, a charge that did not exist until he was in custody for nearly 5 years, "material support to terrorism"... a charge, btw, that, since the weapons Hamdan was found with were in fact military weapons to be used against American military targets, now means that virtually any member of the U.S. military that is captured may be susceptible to the same kind of charges by any enemy that wants to try them, and we have now provided the precedent and authority.
Just another day in the Bush Adminsitration's demonstration of how it "supports our troops".
And magically, a 66 month sentence, which means given that Hamdan has spent around 60, 61 months receiving our GTMO hospitality... his sentence will be up right at the end of the Bush Administration! Just like HIcks got to serve until the end of the Howard Government (as well as helping to CAUSE the end of the Howard Government!)
The troublesome question of whether to continue to incarcerate a "dangerous" cooperating witness beyond the end of his sentence will then fall to... the next President, and so the Bush exit strategy ("January 20, 2009") will continue to work as masterfully on this as with everything else. Another win-win for the Bush Administration!
Cry me a river for Usama Bin Laden's driver and Al Qaeda supporter...Whahhh
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