The president's military commissions were inaugurated with the loftiest rhetoric.
On Nov. 13, 2001, President Bush issued a military order authorizing trials of suspected terrorists before military commissions. Terrorists, the president warned, may cause "mass deaths and ... place at risk the continuity of the operations of the United States government." And only military commissions would suffice to bring terrorists to justice, because "given the danger to the safety of the United States" and the unique "nature" of terrorism, "it is not practicable to apply ... the principles of law and the rules of evidence generally recognized in the trial of criminal cases in the United States district courts."
So how're those commissions working out for you, Mr. President?
On Wednesday, after 6 1/2 years of controversy and delay, the administration finally scored a "victory" in a military commission trial at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, gaining the conviction of one terrorist mastermind.
Osama bin Laden, you ask?
Ah, no. He's still living it up somewhere in Pakistan, enjoying a good chuckle at our expense.
Wednesday instead saw the conviction of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, who fessed up to being ... Bin Laden's driver. He was accordingly convicted of the "war crime" of "providing material support for terrorism." Next up before the military commissions: Bin Laden's pastry chef, for providing culinary support to terrorism.
Just kidding! But among those next up for trial at Guantanamo -- seriously -- are two other uniquely dangerous terrorist masterminds, Omar Khadr and Mohammed Jawad. Khadr, a Canadian, was all of 15 years old when he allegedly lobbed a hand grenade at U.S. troops during a July 2002 firefight in Afghanistan. He's now spent more than a quarter of his short life in U.S. detention. Jawad, an Afghan, is also accused of throwing a grenade at U.S. troops in Afghanistan. He was 16 or 17 at the time of the December 2002 incident, and like Khadr, he's been in U.S. detention ever since.
To be fair, the military commission system does have another conviction to its credit: Early in 2007, Australian citizen David Hicks, a Taliban supporter who was turned over to U.S. forces by Afghanistan's Northern Alliance for a $1,000 bounty, pleaded guilty to a charge of "material support for terrorism." He was returned to Australia, where he served out a nine-month sentence and is now free.
