These Guantanamo trials are a joke.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

Yes, I know we all know they're a joke, but consider the following, from the article here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080807/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/guantanamo_bin_laden_s_driver

Several bits need to be viewed together...

It remains unclear what will happen to Hamdan once his sentence is served, since the U.S. military has said it won't release anyone who still represents a threat.

<snip>

It now goes for mandatory review to a Pentagon official who can shorten the sentence but not extend it.

<snip>

Defense lawyers said they expect Hamdan will be let go in five months. "It was all for show if Mr. Hamdan does not go home in December," said civilian defense attorney Charles Swift, who hugged Hamdan after the jurors left the courtroom.

<snip>

A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, said he could not speculate whether Hamdan would be released later this year or remain imprisoned as an "enemy combatant."


So let me get this straight: They've had the trial. Great. He's been sentenced. Great. The sentence goes for review and can be shortened but not lengthened. Great. But... contrary to every single reasonable interperetation of the above three statements, the Pentagon can choose to continue holding him indefinitely without any sort of judicial review just because they want to.

This is ridiculous. What the hell is the point of a trial and sentencing, and especially a review of the sentencing that can shorten but not lengthen it, if the very same entity that conducts that review has extrajudicial power to, by fiat, overrule everything that has gone before?

I know better than to expect logical consistency from the Bush administration, but this is dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb.

[hobbit709]

1. It's called MARSUPIAL justice

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

2. In a kangaroo court you'd expect the sentence to be a lot longer.

This is something like an anti-show trial.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

3. I'm going to give this a kick.

I hate kicking my own threads, but I did post it at stupid o'clock in the morning American time.