So Much for "They're All Terrorists…"
The United States has dropped war crimes charges against five more Guantanamo Bay detainees:
Army Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld had been appointed the prosecutor for all five cases, but at a pretrial hearing for a sixth detainee earlier this month, he openly criticized the war-crimes trials as unfair. Vandeveld said the military was withholding exculpatory evidence from the defense, and was doing so in other cases.
That’s a far cry from this:
They’re all terrorists; they’re all enemy combatants.
That was former Guantanamo detention center commander, now retired Rear Admiral Harry B. Harris, in December 2006.
This comes on the heels of the outrageous situation with the wrongfully detained Uighurs, not to mention underage detainees and mentally incompetent detainees. And all this while over half of the detainees sent to Guantanamo since its opening have eventually been released or transferred.
And for what? These un-American atrocities have been “balanced” by exactly one conviction — of Osama bin Laden’s driver. While President Bush continues to insist that closing Guantanamo is still not an option.
Still, this is not necessarily a vindication for the detainees:
The chief prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay has now appointed new trial teams for the five cases to review all available evidence, coordinate with intelligence agencies and recommend what to do next, a military spokesman, Joseph DellaVedova, said in an e-mail.
DellaVedova said the military might renew the charges against the five later. Clive Stafford Smith, a civilian attorney representing detainee Binyam Mohamed, said he has already been notified that charges against his client would be reinstated.
“Far from being a victory for Mr. Mohamed in his long-running struggle for justice, this is more of the same farce that is Guantanamo,” Stafford Smith said.
We spent so much time debating the notion of habeas corpus at Guantanamo, that we forgot other fundamental notions of justice, including the guarantee of a speedy and public trial and the protection against double jeopardy.
The terrorists, who may or may not count these five detainees among them, sought to destroy our way of life. In the context of Guantanamo, they succeeded.
Previously:
–“Due Process of Law” Quote of the Day
–What’s Arabic for “Alleged”?
–Guantanamo Suicides “An Act of War”?
–Pentagon: Punish Law Firms Defending Gitmo Prisoners
Filed under: Law, Terror v. Civil Liberties