Monday, June 04, 2007

Guantanamo, The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Giving trouble to BushCo has turned into the Guantanamo function in legal circles. The Supreme Court tossed the first BushCo Military Tribunal setup, now the Military Judge, Lt Col. Peter Brownback has tossed the case against Canadian Omar Kadhr because his classification as an offender - enemy combatant - does not match the charge of unlawful combatant required to be prosecuted. The charge was dismissed without prejudice which means it can be brought again, but the rules are going to be a problem.

Adding to the difficulties is that none of the detainees have been classified as unlawful combatants. If that were not quite sufficient to complicate matters there is the little matter that the Military Commissions Act made some actions crimes retroactively, grandfathering them. What this means is that at the time the action was committed it was not a crime, it became a crime after the fact and that is a very large Constitutional problem. The Constitution certainly hasn't figured very largely in quite a few of the BushCo activities, maybe he'll get smacked down again...and again...and again. Makes you wonder why we have jails...

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