by James Oliphant
Salim Ahmed Hamdan, the first detainee at Guantanamo to face a military commission, was found guilty Wednesday of supporting terrorism.
The Miami Herald reported that the six-member jury delivered its verdict after only two days of deliberations. It cleared Hamdan of the more serious charge of conspiracy.
He faces life in prison, be it at Gitmo or somewhere in the United States.
Hamdan, who served as Osama bin Laden's driver in Afghanistan, was not viewed by the Pentagon as a high-level terrorist, and, in fact, written statements from 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed portrayed him rather as a flunky, someone good for changing jeep tires.
His civilian and military lawyers argued Hamdan was being made a scapegoat for the U.S.' failure to capture bin Laden and railed against the commission process, which they said was too tilted in favor of the prosecution.
Still, Hamdan was a member of al Qaeda and prosecutors argued he transported weapons and attended terror training camps. He was found with two surface-to-air missile in his trunk when captured.
His conviction sets the stage for the trial of as many as 80 more detainees on similar or more serious charges.
Hamdan can appeal his conviction to the newly established Court of Military Commission Review, and from there up to the federal appeals court in Washington and then finally the Supreme Court. There should be no shortage of appealable issues, especially with regard to evidence and access to witnesses.
Also, Tuesday, the military judge in the case, Keith Allred, confessed to possibly making an error in instructing the jury on international war criminal law, raising the specter of a mistrial. Instead, both sides allowed the process to go forward.
Read more on Hamdan's conviction at Writ Large, the Tribune's new legal affairs blog.
(Photo credit: AP Photo/Photo courtesy of Prof. Neal Katyal, File)
• 
• 
• 
Comments
This is a brilliant victory for every nation that will ever fight the United States in a future war.
No American will ever again be classified a POW or given their full Geneva Convention Rights. Any nation warring against us will declare the US captives "Unlawful enemy combatents", torture them, try them in a military court without the right to bring evidence on their own behalf, convict them, and execute them.
The Bush Administration had signed the death warrants of american soldiers for decades to come. John McCain would be dead if this precedent had been in place prior to his capture.
Posted by: MBT | August 6, 2008 11:13 AM
Now there's a surprise!
Like it makes any difference, since they weren't going to allow him out of Gitmo in the unlikely event the prosecutors failed.
Posted by: athena | August 6, 2008 11:34 AM
As the story says.... He was cleared of the more serious charge of conspiracy. He was just a low level laborer, not someone who attacked the U.S. Why are we spending years prosecuting a guy like this, while the masterminds, including bin laden, are still on the loose?
Posted by: rupert | August 6, 2008 12:41 PM
When captured he was found with 2 missiles in his trunk...
How could they possibly find him a terrorist when he merely had 2 missiles? Especially since the ACLU tells us all those terrorist attacks are by rampaging Presbyterians, not Muslims.
Posted by: bruce | August 6, 2008 1:01 PM
That's right, bruce; those terrorist anthrax attacks weren't by Muslims, so cut the bigotry.
Posted by: rupert | August 6, 2008 1:22 PM
I love how Rupert seems to believe that "low level" terrorists are okay to be let go to attack the US again. That's right, all those Nazi Stormtroopers that killed millions of innocent civillians were just doing what they were told, just like Mr. Hamdan. Just let 'em all go and when we get Bin Laden it'll make up for it. Amazing how liberals think. It's no wonder their ranks produce collaborators like Lynne Stewart. Cut the lunacy.
Posted by: Jeff | August 6, 2008 1:43 PM
Jeff, Great analogy, except for the part where it's all wrong.
During the Second World War we didn't put the everage german foot soldier on trial for being an accessory to murder and give them a life sentence in prison. We didn't even do that the average SS foot soldier. Some lower level troops were tried for their part in certain specific war crimes, which they actually took part in, such as death camp guards.
Now Hamdan hasn't been charged with participation in any specific act of terrorism. If he had, your analogy miught have held some small amount of water, but unfortunately for you, it doesn't.
The case of one Erich Kempka is more instructive. He served as Adolf Hitler's chauffeur. He was never tried as a war criminal after the war.
Nice try, but a swing and a miss.
Posted by: JT | August 6, 2008 6:32 PM
Great, we got the driver. Now, who's next? The cook?
Posted by: DD | August 6, 2008 8:34 PM
JT are you nuts? He was more than just his driver, get the sympathy for terrorists out of your mind for one minute. I don't care if he had one missile or 50, he was an intimate associate of Osama Bin Laden and a part of an international terrorism ring that murderded nearly 2,800 Americans. Your level of appeasement is shocking. Take your head out of the sand.
p.s. I wasn't being literal with that comparison. Germany was a sovereign nation, at least, Al Qaeda is an international murder ring dedidcated to nothing but the destruction of the west. As such Al Qaeda members don't enjoy any of the rights that the prisoners at Nuremburg did, no matter what "level" of terrorist they are, according to you.
Posted by: Jeff | August 6, 2008 10:06 PM
Hitler's chauffeur was treated more humanely.
My brother was a POW at the famous Stalagluft III in WW II.
Where they sent the Air Force officers. (He did a fair amount of damage at Regenberg, Ploesti, Toulon, the Brenner Pass, etc., before being shot down.)
He wasn't treated nearly as badly as the Gitmo POWs.
But then, the Greatest Generation was being led by folk like Franklin Roosevelt, General Marshall, Ike, etc.
Not wimps and chickenhawks like Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld
That's why they were called the Greatest Generation.
The historians have not yet come up with the tag line for this, Bushite, generation. But they are high-fiving it tonite in the Rose Garden.
Way to go, Georgie Boy. Ya got yourself a chauffeur.
Posted by: ornery | August 6, 2008 11:05 PM
I love how because he was a driver these people think he was innocent and harmless. Tell me, what high level jobs did Muhammad Atta do while he was living in Florida and Germany? Oh, right, they were menial jobs, too.
Posted by: Jeff | August 7, 2008 10:52 AM