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Insh'allah

I don't know what to make of the Hamdan sentencing decision yesterday. On the one hand I'm pleased that even senior military officers recognized the folly of claiming such a low level guy should be executed for *cough* war crimes, which did not even exist until 2004 as I understand it. On the other hand, the administration hacks are already claiming that this proves the procedure is "fair." They're right. But only insofar as the the military officers were fair.

There's nothing remotely fair about the process. To recap:

-- Evidence obtained by torture admissible? Yes.
-- Classified evidence that you cannot see or rebut admissible? Yes.
-- Confrontation clause? No.

The more troubling part was the Pentagon's very best efforts to remove individuals who even used the word fair in their daily lexicon from having anything to do with the military commissions. By my count, the Pentagon has so far relieved Col. Davis of his role as chief prosecutor for actually thinking the trials should be fair, removed a judge who thought likewise, killed the career of LCDR Charles Swift, the JAG attorney for Hamdan, for actually winning, and probably a host of others we may never hear about. And as an aside, Charles Swift continued to argue the case of Hamdan after leaving the Navy, probably because he had the requisite security clearance. But I don't imagine Hamdan is paying him. Now there's a great graduation speaker candidate!

But despite the Pentagon's best efforts, in the end, at least four, maybe all six, senior military officers gave the 5 month sentence. Despite rules that stacked the deck against Hamdan, despite a convening authority and general officers who thought acquittals are not in the realm of possibilities, despite effectively throwing several military officers out of the service for doing their duty, the message back was 5 months. If that's not enough, the judge and Hamdan had this exchange.

?Mr. Hamdan,? Judge Allred said, ?I hope the day comes that you are able to return to your wife and daughters and your country.?

?Inshallah,? Mr. Hamdan said in Arabic, before an interpreter gave the English translation of ?God willing.?

?Inshallah,? Judge Allred responded.

And masha'Allah to Capt. Allred and the other military officers, lawyers or otherwise, who acted honorably, despite the administration's best efforts to prevent them from doing so.

Full post as published by Nuts & Boalts on August 08, 2008 (boomark / email).