Saturday, May 11, 2013

From Roger Fitch and our Friends Down Under at Justinian


US soldiers are special: they can shoot, but they can't be shot



US government has its very own radical Islam website ... Judge overrules some of the FBI's denial of rights to Boston bombing suspect ... Canadian to appeal Guantánamo conviction ... Guilty plea to invalid charges ... Pentagon citing Civil War precedents in Bradley Manning stitch-up ... 
....

Relying on the Al Bahlul precedent, Canadian Omar Khadr plans to appeal his Guantánamo convictions in the US, testing whether a guilty plea can prevent a subsequent legal challenge where the underlying charges are found invalid. 
Since his release from Gitmo pursuant to a plea deal, Khadr has been confined in a maximum security Canadian prison. In addition to his meritless MST and conspiracy convictions, he has the distinction of being perhaps the first "combatant" ever convicted of a "war crime" of "murder" for killing a uniformed soldier in lawful combat.  
To be fair, the dead soldier was an American; and that, of course, changes everything. US soldiers are special:  they can shoot, but they can't be shot.

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE HERE.