Remember the good old days of the Soviet Union, where anyone accused of crimes against the state was guaranteed to be found guilty, no matter how trumped-up or ridiculous the charges? Yeah, me too. That's why I got a touch of Stalinist nostalgia on reading The Nation's interview with Colonel Morris Davis, who was the chief prosecutor at the Guantanamo Bay prison until he resigned in disgust over the rampant politicization of its military tribunals.
You see, Davis has come forward to say that with such outrages as secret evidence and torture, there is no way any of the prisoners can get a fair trial, if and when such trials ever take place.
Don't hold your breath; most of the prisoners have been there for half a decade and have yet to be charged with anything. The Bush Administration doesn't seem to be in any hurry and seems content to let most of them just rot in prison forever. It was announced only earlier this month that six of the prisoners, including alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, will be tried sometime this year and executed if found guilty.
Speaking of "if found guilty," the most appalling part of the story was Davis' recounting of an exchange with Pentagon general counsel William Haynes. When Davis told Haynes that acquitting some of the prisoners (especially the ones who weren't anywhere near the battlefield but were kidnapped and sold to us by our Afghan allies in exchange for bounty money) would help make the process seem less - well, bad - the reaction was very telling.
"Wait a minute, we can't have acquittals," Davis quotes Haynes as saying. "If we've been holding these guys for so long, how can we explain letting them get off? We can't have acquittals. We've got to have convictions."
Think about that for a moment. The man in charge of putting Guantanamo prisoners on trial has already declared them guilty, even though such trials have yet to begin. That it doesn't matter whether they're even actually guilty or not, as long as they're convicted. And even if by some miracle they are acquitted, the Bush Administration has already said it has no intention of ever releasing any of them.
Just think of what would happen if such an approach were applied to regular criminal law. Who needs a trial, or even a formal charge? If someone is suspected of something, just lock him up and leave him there. Or put a bullet through his brain. The mere fact of his being a suspect means he is automatically guilty. If and when a show trial is ever conducted, a guilty verdict means execution and a not-guilty verdict means life imprisonment.
Once again, we see how the Bush Administration defines such radical notions as "justice" and "fairness."
You see, Davis has come forward to say that with such outrages as secret evidence and torture, there is no way any of the prisoners can get a fair trial, if and when such trials ever take place.
Don't hold your breath; most of the prisoners have been there for half a decade and have yet to be charged with anything. The Bush Administration doesn't seem to be in any hurry and seems content to let most of them just rot in prison forever. It was announced only earlier this month that six of the prisoners, including alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, will be tried sometime this year and executed if found guilty.
Speaking of "if found guilty," the most appalling part of the story was Davis' recounting of an exchange with Pentagon general counsel William Haynes. When Davis told Haynes that acquitting some of the prisoners (especially the ones who weren't anywhere near the battlefield but were kidnapped and sold to us by our Afghan allies in exchange for bounty money) would help make the process seem less - well, bad - the reaction was very telling.
"Wait a minute, we can't have acquittals," Davis quotes Haynes as saying. "If we've been holding these guys for so long, how can we explain letting them get off? We can't have acquittals. We've got to have convictions."
Think about that for a moment. The man in charge of putting Guantanamo prisoners on trial has already declared them guilty, even though such trials have yet to begin. That it doesn't matter whether they're even actually guilty or not, as long as they're convicted. And even if by some miracle they are acquitted, the Bush Administration has already said it has no intention of ever releasing any of them.
Just think of what would happen if such an approach were applied to regular criminal law. Who needs a trial, or even a formal charge? If someone is suspected of something, just lock him up and leave him there. Or put a bullet through his brain. The mere fact of his being a suspect means he is automatically guilty. If and when a show trial is ever conducted, a guilty verdict means execution and a not-guilty verdict means life imprisonment.
Once again, we see how the Bush Administration defines such radical notions as "justice" and "fairness."
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