Op-Ed: Guantanamo Trial Exposes the Flawed Injustice of Tribunals

The trial of Salim Hamdan - a driver for Osama Bin Laden who the US allege knew much about his operations - is currently being undertaken by military tribunal.

It had seemed, at various points during his six-and-a-half-year stint in Guantanamo Bay, that US courts would rule against military tribunals being used. Larry Cox, Chief Executive of Amnesty USA described the situation thus:

After a six-and-a-half-year-long detention--which Hamdan hasn't been allowed to challenge--he will now be subjected to a trial by the irreparably flawed military commissions system.

It's time to scrap the grossly and hopelessly inadequate military commissions scheme. Circumventing justice for six and a half years is reprehensible. This needs to end now."

After years of wrangling slight alterations to the system have satisfied judges and the case will now hinge on Hamden's level of involvement with Bin-Laden. The defence portrays Hamdan as an uneducated labourer who joined the bin Laden motor pool because he needed the wages to support himself and get married, but who had no prior knowledge of al Qaeda attacks. This seems in keeping with his circumstances. The trial has revealed that Hamdan had only a fourth grade education, and that most of Bin-Laden's inner circle were well-educated, with foreign language and diplomacy skills. Dr. Brian Williams, a history professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and an expert on central Asian jihadists, said of defendant Salim Hamdan:

I don't see him being that quality of material (to have privelieged access to terror plans). Many of (Bin-Laden's workers) were hired, given salaries and knew nothing about the inner workings of al Qaeda.

Prosecutors portray him as a trusted bin Laden aide who sometimes acted as his bodyguard and helped him avoid capture, and who enthusiastically supported the al Qaeda leader even after the September 11 attacks. After nearly seven years of torture and solitude, including 50 days continuous sleep deprivation, and more, it seems highly likely this trial will not uncover a meaningful truth. This is the most pernicious effect of Guantanamo. It is the USA's greatest weapon in the terrorism war, but it is a travesty of justice. It seems certain that some true terrorists, well-trained in resistance techniques, will escape, while innocents, perhaps like this uneducated driver, will pay the price.