Civilian Courts vs Military Tribunals, the shocking numbers
source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/michaeltomasky/2010/jan/07/military-tribunals-civili...
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- bansheewail
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The Bush administration prosecuted, after 9-11, 828 people on terrorism charges in civilian courts. At the time of publication of this excellent report from the Center on Law and Security, NYU School of Law last year, trials were still pending against 235 of those folks. That leaves 593 resolved indictments, of which 523 were convicted of some crime, for a conviction rate of 88%.
With regard to military tribunals, the Bush administration inaugurated 20 such cases. So far just three convictions have been won. The highest-profile is the conviction of Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden's driver. The Hamdan legal saga, rehearsed here, doesn't exactly suggest that military tribunals provide swifter and surer and tougher justice. In the end, he was convicted all right, but sentenced -- not by a bunch of New York City Democrats, but by a military jury! -- to five and half years.
Then, the tribunal judge, a US Navy captain, gave Hamdan credit for time served, which was five years. So he served six months after conviction. Today he's back in -- guess where? -- Yemen.
So here's the situation. Bush/Cheney found civilian prosecution a perfectly acceptable path to pursue in 828 cases. They've won convictions at an impressive rate in those civilian prosecutions. The most high-profile military prosecution was kind of a disaster.
And yet, Obama is a weakling because Abdulmutallab is being treated the way the Bush administration treated 828 "suspects," to use a word the right has declared reveals a girly-mannish mindset. Amazing. And again: where are the Democrats who are saying this?
With regard to military tribunals, the Bush administration inaugurated 20 such cases. So far just three convictions have been won. The highest-profile is the conviction of Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden's driver. The Hamdan legal saga, rehearsed here, doesn't exactly suggest that military tribunals provide swifter and surer and tougher justice. In the end, he was convicted all right, but sentenced -- not by a bunch of New York City Democrats, but by a military jury! -- to five and half years.
Then, the tribunal judge, a US Navy captain, gave Hamdan credit for time served, which was five years. So he served six months after conviction. Today he's back in -- guess where? -- Yemen.
So here's the situation. Bush/Cheney found civilian prosecution a perfectly acceptable path to pursue in 828 cases. They've won convictions at an impressive rate in those civilian prosecutions. The most high-profile military prosecution was kind of a disaster.
And yet, Obama is a weakling because Abdulmutallab is being treated the way the Bush administration treated 828 "suspects," to use a word the right has declared reveals a girly-mannish mindset. Amazing. And again: where are the Democrats who are saying this?
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bansheewail
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It is amazing to me how vigorously uninformed the "Right" can be. They don't even know, nor do they care to know, when the contradict themselves. All they care about is winning, power and greed(and opposing anything the Democrats try to do, of course..)
- 2 years ago
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bansheewail
