Civilian Guantanamo Trial

Everywhere I see people who seem profoundly disappointed that a civilian jury found Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani guilty of only one of more than 280 charges levied against him by the U.S. Government, various secret intelligence agencies, and the U.S. military.

I think many people, especially the right-wingers, wanted vengeance. These fat, lazy Republicans, most of whom never even served in the military, were like members of a Roman crowd 2,000 years ago watching the Christians and the lions. They mostly just wanted to see blood, suffering, and watch who they thought was the bad guy get convicted and punished.

In the current political climate no one wants to be perceived as disloyal or as un-American. You can be sure that the prosecutors used their finest team of lawyers. The jury was not made up of socialist radical college students from San Francisco.

The fact that a jury only found him guilty of one charge is certainly not an indictment of President Obama or any of the current team of government workers. It is a clear cut proof that what Cheney, Bush, and Rumsfeld did was in harsh violation of America's constitution and laws. How many other dark skinned, poorly educated men spent years and years in Guantanamo, some being openly tortured, when they were in fact clearly not guilty?

But Mr. Obama does not have clean hands either. Now that the American military has figured out how rigorous the American system of jurisprudence is, they have changed their tactics. They no longer take prisoners, it is just too much hassle. They simply kill anyone they think is a bad guy using an unmanned drone. Him, his family, friends, and everyone around him. All without the benefit (or silly waste of time) of a judge, jury, or antiquated rules like the American Constitution.

We are watching the guilty until proven innocent crowd gone wild.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/19/nyregion/19detainees.html


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