The decision by U.S. military judges to drop all war crimes charges against the only two Guantanamo captives facing trial has thrown plans to take pending cases to trial into dissaray.
U.S. military judges dropped all war crimes charges on Monday against the only two Guantanamo captives facing trial, rulings that could preclude trying any of the 380 prisoners held at the U.S. base in Cuba any time soon.
As we have seen with the David Hicks case, the US government has never let details like lack of evidence get in the way of indefinitely detaining captives.
The rulings did not affect U.S. authority to indefinitely hold the 380 foreign terrorism suspects detained at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in southeast Cuba.
But it was the latest setback for the Bush administration’s efforts to put the Guantanamo captives through some form of judicial process. It was forced to rewrite the rules last year after the U.S. Supreme Court deemed the old tribunals illegal.
The right wing reaction was predictable, decrying the annoying fact that democracies are bound by laws.
This war has been over-lawyered, which is not to say that it has been well-lawyered.
Translation: these highly annoying “laws” are really getting in the way of America kicking ass.