Justice denied
Salim Hamdan was convicted today of providing material support to terrorists in a sham kangaroo court convened at Guantanamo. His "trial" included the admission of inflammatory, irrelevant evidence such as the 1998 African embassy bombings and the 9/11 attacks, neither of which he was accused of knowing about. Evidence derived through torture was also permitted, as was evidence kept secret from him and the public.
Instead of trying Hamdan under the UCMJ (which would have made him an official POW, and therefore subject to the Geneva Conventions), and instead of trying Hamdan under US civilian law (which would have opened his trial and the use of torture to public scrutiny), the Bush administration chose to fabricate its own rules, without oversight, precedent, or Constitutional basis. To shield itself from public accountability, the White House crafted rules which ignored centuries of legal precedent and tossed aside even the barest semblance of justice in favor of a system automatically tilted toward the prosecution.
Nearly equal blame resides with Congress, which caved to the horrid, unprincipled vampires in the White House to pass the Military Commissions Act, an abomination of justice if there ever was one.
Anyone who would call a proceeding such as Hamdan's "fair" should consider this: if they can do it to him, they can do it to you or me.
It really is that simple.