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Today's
Stories
August 8, 2008
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Voting: a Ritual of Justifying Biases
August 7, 2008
Dr. Trudy Bond
Fixing Hell and Curing Obesity
William Blum
Breaking Young Hearts:
Obama and the Empire
Paul Craig Roberts
Do You Feel Safe Now?
Ralph Nader
Gouged in the Skies: Gotcha Capitalism in the Airline Industry
Robert Weitzel
Obama and the Two Walls
Jacob G. Hornberger
Why Wasn't Ivins Declared an Enemy Combatant?
Binoy Kampmark
Driving Bin Laden
David Macaray
What Does a Radical Labor Union Look Like?
Howard Lisnoff
Echoes of the Sixties: Refusing to Recite the Pledge
Website of the Day
Bono's Retirement Fund
August 6, 2008
Marc Herold
Obama and Afghanistan
Greg Moses
The Unnecessary Execution of Jose Ernesto Medellin
Sheldon Rampton
The Anthrax Cover-Up
Kevin Young
The Atomic Bombing of Japan: Tsuyoshi Hasegawa Re-Examines the Japanese Surrender
Michael Estrada
What I Re-Discovered in Mexico
Robert Weissman
The Commercial Games
Dr. Susan Block
The Knoxville Unitarian Universalist Church Killings: Did Rightwing Talk Shows Drive Him to Kill?
Cindy Sheehan
This is Horseshit
Ronald Hoffman
The Unholy Trinity
Website of the Day
Over to You, Paris
August 5, 2008
Paul Craig Roberts
The Anthrax Attacks and the Assault on Civil Liberties
Jeff Halper
An Israeli Jew in Gaza
Patrick Cockburn
Iraq Better? With Three Wars Going On?
Nancy Welch
"What Did My Father Do to Deserve Such Treatment?"
An Interview with Laila al-Arian
Peter Morici
Rear View Mirror Economics
Sousan Hammad
The Antisemitism Incitement Craze
Eamon Martin
The Audacity of Despair
Shepherd Bliss
Slow Food Nation Gains Momentum
Tim Matson
Keeping Cool and Saving BTUs
Website of the Day
Top Heavy Greens?
August 4, 2008
Uri Avnery
Olmert's Exit
Saul Landau
Reflections on the Cuban Revolution
David W. Remington
The Face of the Modern War Criminal
Rev. Jesse Jackson
The Question Conscience Asks
Dave Lindorff
The Cheney Doctrine: Shoot Your Friends First
Peter Morici
The Lingering Economic Malaise
Joanne Mariner
Debating Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism in Britain
Ramzy Baroud
Through the Israeli Looking Glass: Obama Joins the Club
Christian Wright
Why We're Protesting at the Democratic Convention
Website of the Day
The US and Karadzic
August 2 / 3, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
The Ongoing Persecution of Sami al-Arian
Jeffrey St. Clair
The Worst Day of Ted Stevens' Life?
Patrick Cockburn
Who's Really Running Iraq?
Winslow T. Wheeler
Is the King of Pork Dead?
James Abourezk
Lies the Oil Companies Peddle
Andy Worthington
The CIA's Secret Prison on Diego Garcia
Brian Cloughley
Baleful Imperial Power
Robert Fantina
Redefining Progress in Iraq
Benjamin Dangl
Total Recall in Bolivia
Marlene Martin
Living in Hell for Life
David Yearsley
The Sound and Fury of Wet Balloons Rubbed with a Big Sponge: Yes, Bill O'Reilly, This Your Kind of Music!
Fatemeh Keshavarz
What Qualifies "Them" for the Death Sentence?
David Michael Green Obama as Dukakis
Harvey Wasserman
Meet the Real Terrorists of the 1960s
Jason Hribal
Moja Has Mojo:
How a Few Elephants Turned the Zoo Industry Upside Down
Phyllis Pollack
The Rolling Stones' Exile on Geary Street: an Interview with Rock Photographer Dominque Tarle
Laray Polk
Tongues of Fire, Plains of Grace: Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Ron Jacobs
Jerry Garcia Meets Barack Obama
David Macaray
Labor, Management and the Adversarial Relationship
David Rosen
Teen Prostitution in America
Dan Bacher
Schwarzengger's Water Empire
Joe Allen
Batman's War of Terror
Poets' Basement
Graham, Stevens, Cory and Fleming
Website of the Weekend
Get Your War On: the Watch List
August 1, 2008
Jonathan Cook
Palestinians Face Home Demolitions Spree by Israel
Nikolas Kozloff
McCain's Mad Dog Advisor Max Boot
Rannie Amiri
Islamobamaphobia: a New Word Enters the Lexicon
Peter Morici
U.S. Economy Loses Another 51,000 Jobs
Christopher Brauchli
South Dakota's Abortion Fairy Tale
M. K. Bhadrakumar
Coup in the Great Caspian Play
Patrick Cockburn
Turkish Court Says Ruling Islamic Party Can't be Shut Down
James J. Brittain
The Continuity of FARC-EP Resistance in Colombia
Dan Bacher
Warren Buffett, Salmon Killer
Website of the Day
Shark Genocide: 100 Million Deaths a Year
July 31, 2008
Michael Hudson
The Next Big Bail Out: State, Local and Private Pensions
Carl Finamore
Protest Politics and the Democrats: A Street Protester Looks Back at 1968
Mike Whitney
What's Going on in Afghanistan
Joshua Frank
Obama's Green Coal: Another Myth from the Change Agent
Andy Worthington
The Peculiar Case of Jarallah al-Marri
Ralph Nader
The Living Legacy of Rosa Parks
Bill Moyers /
Michael Winship
The Wave of Capitol Crimes
Robert Weissman
The Collapse of the WTO Talks
Dave Lindorff
Bush Judge Does the Right Thing on Executive Immunity
Website of the Day
Perils of the New Pesticides
July 30, 2008
Brian M. Downing
Assessing the Surge
Chuck Spinney
Should Obama Escalate the War in Afghanistan? A Thought Experiment
William S. Lind
Why McCain is Wrong on Iraq
David Ker Thomson
Against Bike Lanes
Karl Grossman
Nuclear-Powered Amphibious Assault Ships?
Mike Whitney
Apocalypse Down Under
Martha Rosenberg
Heifer Palooza
James Murren
Where Your Life is Worth One Bullet
Dave Lindorff
The Impeachment Hearing
Ron Jacobs
A Conspiracy to Kill Iraqis?
Website of the Day
Mapping Job Loss to China
July 29, 2008
Jeffrey St. Clair
King of the Hill Indicted! Ted Stevens' Empire of Corruption
John Ross
Return of the Gunboat
Peter Morici
When Will Henry Paulson Learn?
Alison Weir
Israeli Strip Searches
Gary Leupp
"Bewilderment and Confusion on the Left?"
David Macaray
The Calculus of Union Strikes
Brenda Norrell
Censored in Indian Country
Marjorie Cohn
End the Occupations: Of Iraq and Afghanistan
Eric Ruder
A New Consensus on Iraq?
Website of the Day
"If You Could See Me Now ... "
July 28, 2008
Dr. Bryant Welch
Torture, Political Manipulation and the American Psychological Association
Kathy Kelly
Pictures from Summer Camp on the West Bank
Mike Whitney
Bad News and Bank Runs
Peter Morici
Spreading Layoffs, Sagging GDP
Christopher Brauchli
Death by (Power) Surge in Baghdad
Clifton Ross
The Spectacle and the Movement in Colombia
Stephen Lendman
The Bush Administration's Secret Biowarfare Agenda
Website of the Day
Stone's Dubya: the Trailer
July 26 / 27, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
How Bush is Wiping Out McCain
Jeffrey St. Clair
The Politics of Alaskan Oil Spills
James G. Abourezk
The Surge Has Worked?
Joseph Nevins
Death as a Way of Life on the Borderlands
Uri Avnery
What's Driving the Jerusalem Attacks
Linn Washington, Jr.
Politics and Injustice in Philadelphia
David Yearsley
Sodomy, Snuff Scenes and the Berlin Opera
Binoy Kampmark
Socializing Losses: Bailing Out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
Saul Landau
Truth in Comedy: Stop Whining It's All in Your Head!
Joshua Frank
Big Sky Rebels
Brendan Cooney
Europe's Hypocrisy
Jonathan Cook
Settlers Eye Historic Jerusalem Neighborhood
Robert Fantina
McCain, Iraq and the Campaign
Lee Sustar
Will the US Get Its Way with Iran?
Michael Winship
The Company We Keep
David Macaray
Organized Labor Makes a Convenient Target
Missy Beattie
Pelosi's Panhandling
Robert Weissman
The Scourge of the IMF
Kim Nicolini
Batman and the Old Order
Poets' Basement
Orloski, Ford and McEnteer
Website of the Weekend
Bad Hoosiers
July 25, 2008
Harvey Wasserman
NRC: New Nukes Not Ready for Prime Time
Paul Craig Roberts
Are You Ready for the Facts About Israel?
Alan Farago
Where's the Outrage?
Paul D'Amato
The Arrest of Radovan Karadzic and the Selective Prosecution of War Crimes
Gary Leupp
War With Iran? State Dept. Realists vs. Cheney's Ultras
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Eyes Wide Shut in India
Mike Whitney
Obama Dazzles Old Europe, While McCain Cries, "No Mas!"
Paul Krassner
Inside Camp Mogul
Mike Roselle
All Hail Nero!
Website of the Day
Pressing Starbucks
July 24, 2008
Greg Moses
Who Killed Azem Hajdari?
Andy Worthington
Folly and Injustice: Salim Hamdan's Guantanamo Trial
James Bovard
Daniel Ellsberg's Lessons for Our Time
Joe Bageant
Life in the Post-Political Age
George Wuerthner
Boondoggle in the Fields
DC Larson
Shutting Out Ralph Nader
William Willers
The Forest Products Industry in Public Education
David Macaray
On the Prospects for a SAG Strike
Website of the Day
Pacifica Radio Archive of 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago
July 23, 2008
Winslow T. Wheeler
An Air Force in Free Fall
Paul Craig Roberts
The Mother of All Messes
Ralph Nader
Pavlov's America
Mike Whitney
Visualizing Dow 6,000
Susie Day
Senator Sicko:
Jesse Helms and the Theatre of the Depraved
Website of the Day
"A Kinder and Gentler Machine-Gun Hand..."
July 22, 2008
Nikolas Kozloff
Ten Years On, Bolivarian Revolution at Crossroads
Patrick Cockburn
Boost for Obama Over Iraq Withdrawal
Soldz, Olson, Reisner Arrigo and Welch
Torture After Dark
Moshe Adler
Everyone Must Share, Not Just Charlie Rangel
Martha Rosenberg
Protecting Bones from Drugs that Protect Bones
Dan Bacher
Bechtel and the Big Dig
Harvey Wasserman
Is Gore Inching Toward Solartopia?
Anthony Papa
A Slugger's Drug Redemption
Binoy Kampmark
Mad Over Benedict
Website of the Day
Hiroshima: A-Bombed Objects
July 21, 2008
Ishmael Reed
Remnick's Latest Blunder
Mike Whitney
The Democrats are the Real Problem
Andy Worthington
Dictatorial Powers Upheld: the Meaning of the Al-Marri Decision
Scott Pellegrino
Should "Meet the Press" Desegregate?
John Ross
McCain Crosses the Border, Gets No Satisfaction
Robert Weitzel
Blowback Through the Looking Glass
Mike Stark
I was Spied on by the Maryland Police
Website of the Day
Pinky Solves the Illegal Immigration Crisis
July 19 / 20, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
It's a Dull Race
Jeffrey St. Clair
How to Beat a Mining Company: Why a Gold Goliath Threw in the Towel
Dave Lindorff
I Was a Victim of the TSA
Saul Landau
Obits for Opposites: Carlin and Helms
Ron Jacobs
Why Afghanistan is Not the Good War
Uri Avnery
Different Planet:the Israel / Hezbollah Prisoner Swap
Neve Gordon
The Untold Story of Ni'lin
Roane Carey
Dr. Benny and Mr. Morris
Robert Fantina
Ashcroft, Torture and the U. S.
Christopher Brauchli
The General Lied
Fred Gardner
Cannabinoid Researchers Won’t Take the High Road
David Macaray
Labor Unions and the Courts
Richard L. Hutto
The Ecology of Severely Burned Forests
Bill Moyers /
Michael Winship
Mother's Milk of Politics Turns Sour
Ronnie Cummins
Netroots Nation or Nation of Sheep?
David Yearsley
Opera and Globalization
Alison McKenna
A Close Call for Medicare
Wajahat Ali
The Dark Knight Ascends
Poets' Basement
Ko Un
Website of the Day
What If Edward Said Had Told This Joke?
July 18, 2008
Corey D. B. Walker
A Kinder, Gentler Imperialism?
Mike Whitney
Swan Song for Fanny Mae
Robert Bryce
Iran Rising
Mike Roselle
Ed's Chicken: Fighting King Coal in Appalachia
Bouthaina Shaaban
U. S. to Mandela: Happy 90th and You're No Longer a Terrorist
Eve Spangler
The Deaths of Children
Website of the Day
Lowbagger Needs Your Help
July 17, 2008
Paul Craig Roberts
Airport Gestapo
James G. Abourezk
Big Oil's Raid on the Great Plains
Ralph Nader
D. C. Socialists Save Crashing Capitalists
Allan J. Lichtman
Conservative Denial
Andy Worthington"Screwed Up" and"Abused": Omar Khadr's Interrogations at Gitmo
Ronnie Cummins
Move Over MoveOn
July 16, 2008
Jeffrey St. Clair
Star Whores: How John McCain Doomed Mt. Graham
Paul Craig Roberts
War Crimes Paradox
Conn Hallinan
To the Edge in the Middle East
Dave Lindorff
Torture for Torturers?
William S. Lind
Running the Narrows in Iraq
Christopher Brauchli
Sweepstakes Politics
Website of the Day
History of Iraqi Art
July 15, 2008
Michael Hudson
Why the Bail Out of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae is Bad Economic Policy
Brian Cloughley
Iran's Missile Tests
Patrick Cockburn
Sadr's Militia May Live to Fight Another Day
John Ross
Crunchtime for Mexico's Oil
Howard Lisnoff
When Torture Was Practiced on U. S. Soil
Website of the Day
Rachel Corrie Soccer Tournament
July 14, 2008
Uri Avnery
Will Israel and / or the US Attack Iran?
Paul Craig Roberts
Enabling Tyranny
Trish Schuh
Talking to Iran's Only Jewish Member of Parliament: an Interview with Morris Motamed
Patrick Cockburn
Immunity in Iraq
Mike Whitney
Betancourt Unbound
Alan Farago
Will Miami's Cubans Vote Blue?
Seth Sandronsky
Taxing U. S. Stocks and Bonds
Phyllis Pollack
Stones Paint It Black
Website of the Day
Our Pal in Butte, Jackie Corr, RIP
July 12 / 13, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
Lock and Load--It's the Law!
Jeffrey St. Clair
The Origins of the Western Greens
James Abourezk
Talking World War III Blues: From Dylan to Iran
Nicole Colson
The Ethanol Scam
Stan Cox
Fixing a Broken Agriculture
Ismael Hossein-Zadeh
Is There an Oil Shortage?
Wajahat Ali /
Omid Safi
The Future of Iran: an Interview with Iranian Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi
John Stauber
There May be a Left, But is it Moving? An Interview with David Sirota
Alan Farago
The Crash of the King of Liquidity
Missy Beattie
Dark Neighborhoods
Robert Fantina
Bush's Last Yes Man:
Canada, Guantanamo and Yankee Poodles
Rannie Amiri
Mubarak Hires the Mosque
Gregory Kafoury
After the Obama Betrayal
Fran Shor
The Audacity of Hype
Martha Rosenberg
Why Heifer International is Rolling in Dung
David Macaray
Will There be an Actors Strike?
Andrew Wimmer
No Lies! No War!
Ron Jacobs
They Call Me the Seeker
Farzana Versey
The Kashmir Chiaroscuro
Kim Nicolini
Angelina Jolie's Wanted:
Taking the M-Fers Down with Guns and Exploding Rats
Poets' Basement
Wright, Fleming, Solomon and Birnbaum
Website of the Weekend
Parsing Jesse Ventura
July 11, 2008
Kevin Alexander Gray
Why Does Barack Obama Hate My Family?
Sasan Fayazmanesh
Historical Amnesia and
the Shoot Down of Iran Air Flight 655
Peter Morici
Breaking Down the Trade Deficit
Mike Whitney
Worse Than McCain?
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Oiling the War Machine
Robert Weissman
Crime, Punishment and ExxonMobil
Ramzy Baroud
The Not-So-Historic Barak-Talabani Handshake
Kelly Overton
If There is a Chimp Heaven
Adrian Burgos
In Praise of Jules Tygiel
Website of the Day
Wendell Berry on Mountaintop Removal
July 10, 2008
Brian McKenna
McCain's Melanoma Cover-Up
Paul Craig Roberts
Watching Greed Murder the Economy
Saul Landau
Mississippi River Blues
Ron Jacobs
Who Will Leave Iraq First?
Joshua Frank
Cutting Deals with Big Timber's Darth Vader
Peter Morici
What's Driving the Wall Street Rout
Alan Maass
Jesse Helms Finally Does the Right Thing
Robert Weissman
Humanitarian Failure at the G8
William Blum
Dr. Strangelove
Alan Farago
Coral Reef Meltdown
Website of the Day
Lieberman Must Go!
July 9, 2008
Ismael Hossein-Zadeh
Are They Really Oil Wars?
Luis Rodriguez
The Deadly Fallout from Gang Injunctions
Sheldon Richman
What's Wrong with Selling Your Vote?
Fatemeh Keshavarz
Lessons from Sa'di of Shiraz on"Enhanced Interrogation Techniques"
Chad Hanson
Blowing Smoke: Logging Industry Lies on Forest Fires and Climate Change
Sen. Russ Feingold
The Problems with the FISA Bill
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Defining Deviancy Down with FISA
Dave Lindorff
Paul Krugman's Blind Spot
Stanley Heller
A Damned Good Assembly
Philip Rizk
Sick at the Gaza Crossing
Website of the Day
Mumia on Nader
July 8, 2008
Nikolas Kozloff
Riding the Colombia Gravy Train
Laura Carlsen
North America Doesn't Exist: the New Geography of Trade
Mike Whitney
Bush's Rampage in Somalia
Andy Worthington
Scandal at Diego Garcia
Patrick Irelan
The Empire Goes to the Movies
Chellis Glendinning
The Un-tied States of America
David Macaray
A Union Story
Dave Lindorff
Mumia's Long-Shot Appeal
John Chuckman
The Myths of Independence Day
Phillip Doe
FISA and the Decline of America
Website of the Day
Daniel Ellsberg on Warrantless Wiretap Bill
July 7, 2008
Patrick Bond
Can Reparations for Apartheid Profits be Won in US Courts?
Kathy Kelly
Cold Shoulders
Andy Worthington
Repatriation as Russian Roulette
Clifton Ross
A Rescue Staged for the Screen
Elizabeth Schulte
Obama's War Room
Ralph Nader
The Patriotism of Deeds
Dave Lindorff
Keeping Count
Binoy Kampmark
The World According to Jesse Helms
Stephen Fleischman
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Change
Website of the Day
Time for a Change
July 5 / 6, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
Could Anyone be"Worse" Than Bush?
Jeffrey St. Clair /
Joshua Frank
Preliminary Notes from No Man's Land
Patrick Cockburn
Blowback from a Strike on Iran
Mike Whitney
Hunkering Down in Afghanistan with Field Marshall Obama
Robert Fantina
Obama, Iraq and Change
Binoy Kampmark
The Anwar Case: Snitching and Sodomizing
Rannie Amiri
Can Nasrallah Unite Lebanon?
Eric Ruder
Hidden Casualties
Brian Cloughley
Israel Flexes Its Muscles
William Blum
Some Thoughts on Patriotism
Frank Barat
The One-Word Solution
Christopher Brauchli
Bush's Phony Pollution Accounting
David Yearsley
Rubbert Shines, as US Envoy Puts Foot in His Mouth
Ron Jacobs
U. S. Blues
Karim Makdisi
On Soccer and Politics in Lebanon
Wendy Thompson /
Chris Kutalik
What Can We Learn from the American Axle Strike?
N. D. Jayaprakash
The NPT as a Roadblock to Disarmament
Ramzy Baroud
Journalistic Imperatives
Kelly Overton
Animal Rights and Obama
Richard Neville
Bitch Fights and Tomorrow's Top Model
Poets' Basement
Anderson, Gibbons, Matson and Buknatski
Website of the Weekend
Ginsberg and Cassady on"Extremists"
July 4, 2008
Kathy Kelly
Istiklal
Dave Lindorff
My War Story
Paul Krassner
Confessions of a Barista
Jackie Corr
In the Footsteps of Evel Knievel:
Obama Heads Back to Butte
Laray Polk
Military-Industrial Convergence
Dan Bacher
Dead Runs: Salmon Fishing Banned in Central Valley Rivers
Walter Brasch
The Rocket's Red Glare--May be Chinese
Charles Modiano
Hall of Fame Hypocrisy
Website of the Day
Springsteen: Independence Day
July 3, 2008
Sharon Smith
Exxon's Legal Guardians
Andy Worthington
Another Torture Victim Gets Charged
Laura Carlsen
NAFTA and the Elephant in the Room
Peter Morici
Crisis Grips the Jobs Market
Ramzi Kysia
Breaking Into a Prison
Martha Rosenberg
Mandatory School Milk and the Early Death of Football Players
Anne Landman
Who Really Benefits From Voluntary Codes of Corporate Conduct?
Dave Zirin
Grand Theft Hoops
Kristin Bricker
US Contractor Leads Torture Training in Mexico
Website of the Day
Bush Tours America to Survey Damage from His Presidency
July 2, 2008
Patrick Irelan
Holy Obama
Vijay Prashad
Lunch with Karzai
Brian Cloughley
Sense of Honor, French and US Style
Ralph Nader
Economic Domino Theory
Robert Fantina
General Stupidity: McCain, Obama and Clark
Dave Lindorff
What's So Special About Veterans?
Parvez Ahmed
Obama and Those Pesky Muslim Rumors
Robert Bryce
The Democrats and Off-Shore Drilling
Website of the Day
King Corn: Q&A
July 1, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
Two Months Later, Seymour Hersh Strains to Catch Up With CounterPunch
Mike Whitney
Getting to the Heart of America's Economic Crisis: an Interview with Michael Hudson
Douglas Macgregor
Obama's General?
Steven Higgs
Fighting the NAFTA Super-Highway
Andy Worthington
Guantánamo as Alice in Wonderland
Binoy Kampmark
The Global Seed Police
Dave Lindorff
Blood Money Democrats
Roger Burbach
Fighting Food Fascism
Richard W. Behan
The Story Behind George Bush's Lies
Gary Leupp
The McCain Edge Among Voters on Iraq
Website of the Day
Mountaintop Removal and the Fight for Coalfield Justice
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August 8, 2008
Does It Signal the End of Gitmo?
Salim Hamdan's Sentence
By
ANDY WORTHINGTON
In a decision that will shock those watching the conclusion of the first full U.S. war crimes trial since the Nuremberg Trials, the military jury that convicted Salim Hamdan of providing “material support for terrorism” on Wednesday has sentenced him to serve five and a half years in prison. Given that the judge in his case, Navy Capt. Keith Allred, had earlier ruled that he would be given credit for time served since Hamdan was first charged under the Commission system in July 2003, this means that he will be eligible for release in five months’ time.
The verdict will do nothing to convince the many critics of the Military Commission trial system that it is valid -- as there remain too many issues with the Commissions’ use of hearsay and coerced evidence, of secret testimony, and of attempts to justify elevating “material support for terrorism” to the level of a war crime, despite no precedent for doing so -- but it must surely come as a relief to those who thought that the jury might have been persuaded by prosecutor John Murphy, who argued that Hamdan’s “penalty” should be a sentence of at least 30 years, something “so significant that it forecloses any possibility that he reestablishes his ties with terrorists.”
Instead, the sentence is close to the length of time proposed by Hamdan’s defense lawyer Charles Swift, the former military lawyer who brought down the Commissions’ first incarnation as illegal in the Supreme Court in June 2006. Swift argued that Hamdan should receive a sentence of less than four years because “his cooperation with U.S. intelligence services more than outweighed his culpability as a member of [Osama] bin Laden's motor pool.”
This is, I believe, an extremely important point, as it was apparent during Hamdan’s two-week trial that he had been exploited by those seeking to prosecute him, who had built a case against him through his own words. At issue was the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination, which has been denied to all those deemed “enemy combatants” in the “War on Terror.” While this remains unacceptable -- and is intimately connected with the dark heart of the administration’s deliberate policy of shredding the Geneva Conventions to facilitate the illegal interrogation of prisoners (whether coercively or not) -- what made it particularly troubling in Hamdan’s case was that, whereas other, non-cooperative prisoners had been released from Guantánamo without ever incriminating themselves, Hamdan was being punished for his cooperation.
While legal challenges to the system will be more muted as a result of this verdict, it is unlikely that Hamdan’s defenders will be persuaded not to pursue their many, valid complaints about a system which, as Charles Swift explained today, remains nothing more than “a made-up tribunal to try anybody we don’t like.”
However, what this sentence also achieves, which was previously unconceivable, is to cap the disturbingly open-ended nature of the administration’s detention policies, in a way that was only previously managed through a plea bargain -- that of the Australian David Hicks, who, in the first of the Commission trials following their resuscitation in the fall of 2006 in the Military Commissions Act, received a nine-month sentence to add to the five years and three months he had already spent in U.S. custody.
Until now, the administration has maintained that, if it wishes, it has the right to hold “enemy combatants” without charge or trial until the end of hostilities, which, it has also admitted, might last for generations. A sentence has now superseded that open-ended policy. If one of Osama bin Laden’s drivers gets a sentence of seven years and one month in total (five and half years plus the 19 months of his imprisonment before he was charged) in a system specifically established by the administration to try and convict “terror suspects,” it is surely now inconceivable that those who planned the whole post-9/11 detention policy can maintain that they can still continue to hold him as an “enemy combatant” after his sentence has been served -- or, for that matter, that they can continue to hold any of the 130 or so prisoners in Guantánamo who have not been cleared, and who are not scheduled to face a trial by Military Commission, beyond the end of the year.
With this sentence, it appears that the death knell has just been sounded for the whole malign Guantánamo project.
Andy Worthington is a British historian, and the author of 'The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America's Illegal Prison' (published by Pluto Press). Visit his website at: www.andyworthington.co.uk
He can be reached at: andy@andyworthington.co.uk
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