the people held in the Guantanamo Bay prison facility are supposed to be the worst of the worst. They are so bad, so evil, the administration has argued, that they can be held beyond the reach of due process, habeas corpus, and the normal rule of law.
We now have the very first conviction of a prisoner held at Guantanamo. Notice the priorities:
An Australian detainee held for five years at Guantanamo Bay was found guilty Friday of supporting terrorism, marking the first conviction at a U.S. war-crimes trial since World War II.
David Hicks, a 31-year-old Muslim convert, faces a prison sentence of up to seven years under a plea agreement revealed Friday that also requires Hicks to drop any claims of mistreatment by the U.S. government since he was captured in Afghanistan and taken to Guantanamo Bay, said the judge, Marine Corps Col. Ralph Kohlmann.If sentenced to seven years, the plea agreement calls for an unknown portion of that to be suspended.
Hicks had pleaded guilty to the charge Monday night but was not actually convicted until Kohlmann accepted his plea during Friday's session.
The agreement calls for Hicks to be returned to Australia within 60 days of his sentencing, which is expected within days. The U.S. government had previously agreed to let him serve any sentence in Australia.
The man is supposedly so dangerous that an entirely separate system of justice had to be constructed to detain and prosecute him. And yet he will only serve some small portion of seven years for his crimes, contingent on the fact that he drop his claims of torture and abuse?
Brilliant.
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