Legal Limbo Descends On Gitmo
June 5, 2007 (2 Responses)
US MILITARY JUDGES have thrown out cases against two Guantanamo inmates, casting doubt on future tribunals for the 380 detainees at the prison and giving Bush & Co. a huge country sized headache in the process.
It seems that the whole thing rests upon the use of the term “unlawful enemy combatants“. Both cases collapsed because military authorities had failed to designate the men as “unlawful” enemy combatants, and the chances are that none of the other 380 folks still stuck in Gitmo were classed as “unlawful” either, leaving a massive problem for the Bush legal crew to fix.
The really stupid thing about this however is that the new wording is required as a result of the Military Commissions Act that George Bush pushed for and signed into existence last year. Whatever about the legalities of detaining people without due process in Gitmo, it seems incredible to me that Bush & Co. would push through new legislation to enable them to prosecute detainees from Gitmo that depends on wording which has not been used for ANY of the detainees thus far.
In other words – the infamous Military Commissions Act does not apply to anyone actually detained at Gitmo, so it kind of looses its teeth a bit.
I’m sure the legal beagles within the Bush cabal will be rushing forward with all kinds of nuances and shifty ways to get around this, but for the moment there remains a huge big embarrasing hole in what was to be their first prosecution of a detainee from the prison camp. The amazing team behind George Bush strikes again.
You couldn’t make stuff like this up if you tried 
In their public statements they’ve generally used the term “unlawful enemy combatants”, which leads me to believe they were probably aware of the language issue from the get go. Having said that, it doesn’t surprise me one bit that the gang of incompetents would end up shooting themselves in the foot. They do it daily.
You’re right that it’s a hole, but my guess is they’ll stretch out the legal process with a zillion dodges requiring appeal after appeal until they’re out of office when it doesn’t matter.
They are the shrewdest bunch of nincompoops I’ve ever seen. They always get themselves in trouble, but they’re always able to wiggle out.
Amazing.
They were doing everything they could to avoid the Geneva Convention, and now when they actually have to deal with wordings and classifications they’re falling apart. Can these people do anything right?