Monday, June 4, 2007

Military Justice

One of the things that's struck me in monitoring the available transcripts of the Gitmo detainee review hearings has been the professionalism of the military men and women serving on the tribunals. Yes, the Military Commission system put in place by the Bush administration and a complicit Congress is a travesty of justice. But that doesn't necessarily mean that the individuals that serve in it aren't committed to seeing that justice is ultimately served.

Today the military judge in charge of the commission proceedings against Omar Khadr, Col. Peter E. Brownback III, threw out the charges against Khadr. His reasoning was procedural: Khadr was declared an "enemy combatant" by a review panel, and not an "unlawful enemy combatant" as the Military Commissions Act stipulates for the commission to have jurisdiction to try him for war crimes. But it's definitely another black eye for Bush's show trials.

Now I really don't know whether Col. Brownback is using the letter of the law to take a principled stand against the military commission system. And there's nothing preventing the military from having Khadr declared an unlawful enemy combatant and then re-instating the charges.

But it's reassuring to know that a corrupt system can't always count on the blind allegiance of the people serving under it.

Posted by Judah in:  Human Rights   

Comments (0)

e-mail  |  del.icio.us  |  digg