I expected the military commission in Guantanamo Bay to roll over for Cheney/Addington/Bush (listed in order of importance) and sentence Bin Laden’s driver to a half-dozen life sentences, to be served consecutively.
But the commission wisely sentenced him to 5-1/2 years, which means that with time served he could be free in five months. Government lawyers, including the military JAGs and excluding such suck-ups as the despicable John Yoo and Alberto Gonzales, have been standing up surprisingly well to the constitutional assaults coming from C/A/B.
There are still more prosecutions hopefully coming down the pike, not necessarily of the detainees.
See the editorial in the Times today:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/07/opinion/07thu1.html?hp
Posted by: Buck on August 7, 2008 11:01 PMThe bureaucracy has in general held up surprisingly well under the Cheney assault. Of course those people who were dumped in favor of morons from Regent "University" were ineffective afterward. But many of those who remained tried to uphold the Constitution while keeping their jobs.
Certainly the top-level people in the military, intelligence, and justice communities failed utterly. Most are criminally culpable, and very many are war criminals who will never be able to leave the US openly for the rest of their lives. Bush is currently on his last trip abroad. One wonders if, having never left North America before becoming President, he's developed a taste for travel. More likely, as Stewart says, given his year-plus in Crawford and another year-plus at Camp David, there's just something about being in the White House that galls him. Probably it reminds him of how small a person he is.
Still, down the line, many in those communities struggled to reconcile their duties with their orders. Even Ashcroft fought occasionally. And people like Jim Comey and Jack Goldsmith fought hard, and managed to win a few.
What's hilarious and scary now is the rear-guard action being fought by the pro-torture warmongers trying to cover their tracks. From the Times article on the trial:
David Rivkin, a Washington lawyer who has been a consistent supporter of the administration’s detention policies, said it would be difficult for anyone to criticize the system after the sentence.“This is an enormously compelling indication of how independent the process has been,” Mr. Rivkin said.
I can imagine someone somewhere believing that.
Posted by: Chuck Dupree on August 8, 2008 1:35 AMI agree Chuck, and these were the people who were supposed to be the Republican party's "best and brightest".
Posted by: Buck on August 8, 2008 2:26 AM