Bush’s Botched Gitmo Trials-Military Commisions Have NO Jurisdiction Of Anyone At Gitmo-Whats Next?

[kpete]

Bush’s Botched Gitmo Trials: What Comes Next
The Bush administration’s five year odyssey to create a parallel justice system to put suspected terrorists on trial was dealt yet another setback on Monday when two separate military judges ruled that the Military Commissions currently have no jurisdiction over any of the detainees at Guantanamo.

Here is what happened: In a humiliating blunder, the Military Commissions were drawn up to apply only to detainees determined to be “unlawful enemy combatants,” but no detainee at Guantanamo has ever been determined to be an unlawful enemy combatant. The tribunals hastily established by the Bush administration only classified detainees as “enemy combatants,” a category that can include lawful and unlawful enemy combatants.

One might think that someone in the government would have noticed this discrepancy before Monday. Either they did not, or they simply assumed that since this is a trial system created out of whole cloth they could make up the rules as they went along and niggling details like jurisdiction wouldn’t get in their way. It is in some ways encouraging that the military judges refused to go along with this sloppiness and followed the letter of the law.

Here is what did not happen: The military judges did not make any evidentiary ruling on whether or not the two detainees were actually “unlawful enemy combatants,” meaning the government can re-file these charges against these two detainees at any time. Additionally, even though these charges were dismissed, the detainees were not released from custody. In fact, even if they had been acquitted, they would not have been released, since the Bush administration maintains that the war crimes trials before the Military Commissions have no bearing on whether the detainees are lawfully detained as enemy combatants subject to imprisonment until the cessation of hostilities.

What Happens Next:
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/06/guantanamo-humiliation/