Monday’s dismissals of war crimes cases against two Guantanamo Bay prisoners was another indication of the dysfunction of the slapdash system of justice the Bush administration fashioned for suspected terrorists.
It seems apparent that military prosecutors are interpreting the law, hastily passed after Bush strong-armed a Republican Congress last fall, as they go. The result has been an embarrassment for the U.S. In five years, not one of the hundreds of Guantanamo prisoners has been successfully tried.
Thank goodness the military judges had the gumption to do the right thing when they saw a flawed process. Now it’s clear that Congress must get involved and overhaul the legislation that has led to this dead end.
At issue is what seems like a technical matter but isn’t. It centers on the jurisdiction given to the tribunal by the Military Commissions Act, which the Bush administration rammed through Congress before the November elections.
The judges ruled that in order to go before the new war crimes court, a defendant must be a proven “unlawful” enemy combatant. It’s an important distinction since an armed, uniformed soldier fighting for a government can be an enemy combatant but a legal one and therefore not under the purview of the newly minted war crimes courts.
As it turns out, none of the Guantanamo prisoners have that unlawful designation.
This situation came about as the Bush administration scrambled to create a new tribunal after the U.S. Supreme Court shot down the prior version. What we have is an unsuccessful grafting of a new system onto the flawed roots of the old one.
It is not the only flaw in the system. The Military Commissions Act also denied prisoners the most basic rights, including habeas corpus, the centuries-old legal ability to challenge one’s imprisonment.
Members of Congress, now controlled by Democrats, have been talking about revamping the Military Commissions Act ever since the elections.
“The current system of prosecuting enemy combatants is not only inefficient and ineffective, it is also hurting America’s moral standing in the world,” said U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., who has been working on the revision.
It’s high time lawmakers tackle the issue of justice at Guantanamo and put into place a system that offers a just process in keeping with the laws and traditions on which this country was founded.
