Saturday, August 9, 2008

Apparently the lack of fabric justifies fabrication of Gitmo charges

There is a reason that the US wants to repatriate the prisoners they are holding in Guantanamo and a reason why all the western countries involved repatriated their citizens.

These are low level participants in the Taliban who happened to get caught.

The US rounded up prisoners and threw them into various prisons, where they could be tortured to provide information.

Then in order to justify the flouting of the international rules of war, in regards to the handling of prisoners, the US set up their own War Grimes tribunal and charged the prisoners with acts of terrorism.
They rejected trying the Guantanamo prisoners before normal military or civilian courts, instead designing a special tribunal that keeps classified evidence secret to protect intelligence sources and techniques, and can choose to allow statements obtained using sleep deprivation, exposure to extreme temperatures or other harsh methods.
However most of the 265 prisoners at Guantanamo are low-level players without a proven record of terrorism.

Look at the sentencing of Salim Hamdan.
The jurors clearly weren't convinced that Osama bin Laden's chauffeur was dangerous acquitting Salim Hamdan of charges that he conspired with al-Qaida and convicting him mainly of driving a car.
The prosecutors, meaning the US government claim that they are justified to proceed with their “War Crime” trials.
Military prosecutors argue that even low-level Taliban and al-Qaida figures violated the rules of war by not wearing uniforms and not serving under any nation's flag.
Well it all makes sense, now.
I remember this from the WW2 movies, when the British paratroopers were jumping behind the line. “Remember if you get caught not wearing your uniform you will be executed as a spy.
With the lack of uniforms and flag being the justification for the fabricated charges, you can understand why the US wants to repatriate as many of these prisoners as possible.

Could you imagine the reaction in the UK, Spain, France or Australia if one of their citizens had been held for five years on the most heinous of charges. 

Tortured, threatened with death and rape and in the end there is only enough evidence to convict the captive of driving a car (providing material support).

Sort of explains why the Americans so quickly and quietly repatriated the British, Spanish, French and Australian captives and why those nations did not further prosecute their citizens.

Unfortunately we have Steve.
Mr. Harper, whose right-wing Conservatives won power in January 2006 on a law-and-order platform, says Mr. Khadr is facing serious charges.

Kory Teneycke, Mr. Harper’s chief spokesman, dismissed (yesterday's lawsuit against Harper) as predictable.

“It’s another attempt by Mr. Khadr’s lawyers to avoid trial on the charges of murder in violation of the laws of the war, attempted murder in violation of the laws of the war, conspiracy, providing material support for terrorism, and spying,” Mr. Teneycke said.
In other words Kory is well aware of the fabricated logic of the US prosecutors, choosing which rules of war to follow.

That logic being that the lack of uniforms being issued to the 15 year old Khadr justifies the charges and conversely I would assume that if the Taliban had issued uniforms the US could of only charged him with providing material support for terrorism.

Ignoring the fact that he was a "child soldier" it might be difficult to prove that a 15 year old was capable of providing material support to hardcore militants who threatened America's existence.

The farce of these trials will continue to be displayed.


Bring the kid home.



References: MSNBC on Hamdan trial here, NYT on Teneycke quote here.



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