Swift Injustice

A few years ago, Salim Ahmed Hamdan was arrested in Afghanistan, accused of being Osama bin Laden's driver, declared to be an "enemy combatant" and blocked off from appealing his detention in the American court system. Hamdan was appointed a military lawyer, Lieutenant Commander Charles Swift, a Navy officer for twenty years and a Judge Advocate General lawyer for more than a decade.

When he got the job, Swift's superiors informed him that he was expected to throw the case. Never mind actually defending Hamdan, just get him to plead guilty at his show trial and make an example of him.

"I was deeply troubled by the fact that to ensure that Mr. Hamdan would plead guilty as planned," Swift testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in June 2005, "the Chief Prosecutor's request [for Swift's assignment as Hamdan's attorney] came with a critical condition that the Defense Counsel was for the limited purpose of 'negotiating a guilty plea' to an unspecified offense and that Mr. Hamdan's access to counsel was conditioned on his willingness to negotiate such a plea."

Swift, however, had a different view, taking seriously his oath to provide his client with a "zealous defense." He proceeded to do just that, defending Hamdan all the way up to the Supreme Court. In June, the Court ruled that the Administration did not have the right to bar Hamdan from the American justice system nor to try suspects before what were widely regarded as military kangaroo courts.

One would think that a lawyer as good and effective as Swift would go far in his military career. Unfortunately, that did not happen.

Proving once again that in the topsy-turvy world of the Bush Administration no good deed goes unpunished, reaction from the Pentagon brass was quick. Less than two weeks after the Supreme Court ruled in his client's favor, Swift was informed that under the Navy's "up or out" rule, he was being denied promotion and was therefore being kicked out of the military.

That's right, he was punished for winning his case.

Whoever made the decision to ruin Swift's military career, whether it was Defense Secretary Rumsfeld or an approval-seeking underling, not only punished Swift. They also punished the military and the country. Any system which rewards toadying mediocrity while penalizing those who do the right thing despite orders from above is a dangerously unjust one.