GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA — The war crimes case against Salim Ahmed Hamdan today goes to a jury of his enemies, hand-selected by the Pentagon official who charged him on behalf of a president who has ordered him imprisoned even if acquitted.
"The eyes of the world are on Guantanamo Bay," U.S. District Judge James Robertson said July 17 in declining to halt the first trial by military commission.
"Justice must be done there, and must be seen to be done there fairly and impartially."
But as the first U.S. war crimes tribunal since World War II draws toward a conclusion, many outside the Bush administration question what they've seen.
Thirteen senior officers of the Army, Air Force and Navy, many with friends and colleagues who were at the scenes of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks or other crimes linked to Al Qaeda, were selected by the tribunal's convening authority, Defense Department Judge Susan J. Crawford, to constitute the juror pool.
Crawford filed multiple counts against Hamdan of conspiracy and giving material support to terrorism. He could face life in prison if convicted.
The 13 potential jurors were whittled down to six and one alternate in less than half a day of questioning and challenges from prosecutors and defense attorneys.
That compares with a six-month process involving 550 potential jurors in the U.S. District Court trial of alleged "dirty bomber" Jose Padilla last year for the same charges.
One Hamdan juror is an Apache helicopter pilot who has been shot at by insurgents during missions over Iraq, Kosovo and Panama. Another, an Air Force colonel, was asked no questions during the vetting process. The Navy captain heading the jury by virtue of seniority was privy to classified briefings about Afghanistan during the period when Hamdan was captured there. The alternate, an Army lieutenant colonel who was excused Friday when the trial concluded, conceded she had "a suspicion" that Hamdan must be guilty of something to have ended up imprisoned here.
Scott Silliman, a Duke University law professor and 25-year veteran of the Air Force Judge Advocate General corps, has criticized aspects of the military commissions but believes the jurors will deliberate without bias.
"They're all senior officers. This is a highly educated, sophisticated jury, very different from what you would find in Miami or anywhere else where they go by voter registration" to summon potential jurors, Silliman said.
