For those of us who have been following Hamdan's experience with our System of Justice, Obama's statement on the results may be of interest, as may those of Amnesty International.
My sense is that this goes along with Obama's FISA vote and embrace of offshore drilling as a package that essentially tells us lefties to get lost. When Obama says
"I commend the military officers who presided over this trial and served on the hearing panel under difficult and unprecedented circumstances.
It isn't them my heart goes out to.
Seven years of unlawful detention, a not quilty of terrorism verdict, a quilty verdict for a crime that wasn't passed into law for for another several years after he was taken captive by bounty hunters and the kid may end up doing life.
The following is a statement by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on the Military Commission ’s guilty verdict in the Salim Hamdan case. "I commend the military officers who presided over this trial and served on the hearing panel under difficult and unprecedented circumstances. They and all our Armed Forces continue to serve this country with valor in the fight against terrorism. That the Hamdan trial — the first military commission trial with a guilty verdict since 9/11 — took several years of legal challenges to secure a conviction for material support for terrorism underscores the dangerous flaws in the Administration’s legal framework. It’s time to better protect the American people and our values by bringing swift and sure justice to terrorists through our courts and our Uniform Code of Military Justice. And while it is important to convict anyone who provides material support for terrorism, it is long past time to capture or kill Usama bin Laden and the terrorists who murdered nearly 3000 Americans."
Swift and sure justice that takes seven years before it comes to trial with the defendant subject to kidnapping torture and unlawful detention streatches my definition of the word justice
Military jurors found Osama bin Laden's former driver Salim Hamdan not guilty Wednesday on terrorist conspiracy charges but convicted him on the lesser charge of providing material support to Al-Qaeda.
The split verdict marked a dramatic conclusion of the first trial before the special tribunals created by President George W. Bush to try suspects in the "war on terror."
The jury must now set a sentence for Hamdan, who faces a possible maximum term of life in prison, with a hearing underway on Wednesday afternoon.
Life in prison for a trial that is fatally flawed and doesn't conform to major aspects of the rule of law doesn't inspire me to want to commend those responsible.
WASHINGTON, Aug 06, 2008 PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX -- Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA, issued the following statement in response to today's verdict in the first military commissions trial at Guantanamo Bay in the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan:
"Regardless of today's verdict, Hamdan's trial revealed what is common knowledge - the military commissions are fatally flawed and do not adhere to major aspects of the rule of law.
"Hamdan suffered nearly seven years of unlawful detention, only to face a process that falls far short. So far the trial continues the Bush administration's efforts to escape the rule of law and the requirements of justice."
For more information, please contact the AIUSA media office at 202-544-0200 x302 or go to www.amnestyusa.org.
SOURCE Amnesty International USA
http://www.amnestyusa.org
It isn't really Hamdan that was on trial here but rather America