Hamdan: Justice Will Not Be Tolerated

These are very, very dark times for American justice….and yet Wednesday there was a small shard of light from an unexpected source.

As nearly everyone by now knows, in was on Wedesday that the verdict was announced in the case of Osama bin Laden’s driver, Salim Hamdan. It was the very first of the post 9/11 war crimes trials.

Here are clips the New York Times editorial on the subject:

Now that was a real nail-biter. The court designed by the White House and its Congressional enablers to guarantee convictions of high-profile detainees in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba — using evidence obtained by torture and secret evidence as desired — has held its first trial. It produced … a guilty verdict.

[SNIP]

The rules of justice on Guantánamo are so stacked against defendants that the only surprise was that Mr. Hamdan was actually acquitted on the more serious count of conspiring (it was unclear with whom) to kill Americans during the invasion of Afghanistan after Sept. 11, 2001.

The charge on which Mr. Hamdan was convicted seemed logical since he did work as Mr. bin Laden’s driver. But it was still an odd prosecution. Drivers of even the most heinous people are generally not charged with war crimes.

[SNIP]

Col. Morris Davis, the former chief prosecutor in Guantánamo, put the trial in a disturbing light. He testified that he was informed by his superiors that only guilty verdicts would be tolerated. He also said that he was told to bring high-profile cases quickly to help Republicans score a pre-election public relations coup.

Colonel Davis gave up his position on Oct. 4, 2007. That, he wrote in The Los Angeles Times in December, was “the day I concluded that full, fair and open trials were not possible under the current system.”

Let’s sit quietly and think about that last bit for a few minutes: “Only guilty verdicts would be tolerated.”

Yet, like the passengers on the two ferry boats in The Dark Knight, who refused to live up to the cynical expectations of the Joker, the six-member jury of military officers voted not to convict Hamdan of the bigger, badder charge of conspiring to attack civilians, but found him guilty only of the lesser charge of providing support to al-Qaeda. They then sentenced him to five-and-half years—although, when the prosecutors didn’t get the verdict they wanted, they asked for 30.

Because of time-served, this means Hamdan will be eligible for release in five months.

The Bush administration, however, made it clear before Wednesday’s verdict, that no matter what his sentence, Bush Co intends to hold Hamdan indefinitely as an “enemy combatant.”

Hamdan’s lawyers intend to file a Habeas Corpus petition. so that he might go home to his family once he has served his sentence.

The Bush Administration will natually fight the petition with everything it’s got.

Here is the Miami Herald’s description of what happened just after the trial ended:

After the jury’s verdict, the judge turned to the convicted terrorist and said:

“I wish you godspeed, Mr. Hamdan. I hope the day comes when you return to your wife and your daughters and your country.”

”God willing,” the man in traditional Yemeni robe and head scarf replied in Arabic, interrupting.

The judge continued: “And I hope that you are able to be a father, and a provider, and a husband in the best sense of the word.”

Then the detainee said it again: “Inshallah.”

There are those who are already trying to claim Hamdan outcome merely proves that the post-911 military tribunals can be fair.

Nice try. But, no. A trial in which no other verdict is permissable other than guilt is, by definition, a kangaroo court.

This principle also holds true for a trial in which one’s sentence doesn’t matter because the government intends keep the defendant as long as it pleases.

But, here’s the thing: What the Hamdan case really proves is that sometimes even inside kangaroo courts, people don’t want to behave like kangaroos anymore. They decide they’d rather be human. They’d rather be decent.

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A SMALL SIDE NOTE: In an interview on the Tavis Smiley Show last night, Jane Mayer, author of the recently released book, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals, said that she thought many of the real heroes of the torture/Guantanamo/civil liberties conflict were military people, folks who, in the face of often severe pressure, stood up and said, “No. I won’t. This isn’t right. It’s to what we do here in America.”