Driving Mr. Osama

[The Minsky Moment]

The DC Circuit last week overturned the conviction of the world's most famous limo driver, Salim Hamdan.
The immediate practical impact for Hamdan was nil as he has be living a free man in Yemen since 2009.

Hamdan's case either demonstrates the best or the worst in the American system of justice.  On the one hand his bizarre journey through the US justice-national security complex is straight out of Kafka.  On the other hand, in a sense the system "worked."  When the DOD tried to try him in a kangaroo court, the case went all the way to the Supreme Court.  When tried by a new improved tribunal, the military jury to the surprise of some, rather than rubber stamping some foregone conclusion of guilt, appears to have given the case a real look, concluded he was not a major player, and gave him a 66 month sentence that (given time already served) resulted in his release several months later.  The DOD apparently considered holding him anyway as an "illegal combatant", thought the better of it, and released him a month early. 

And now the DC Circuit, in a panel consisting the 3 conservative icons, threw out the whole conviction on retroactivity grounds, which means that as of now, bin Laden's former wheelman, despite having spent over 5 years as an involuntary guest at the US government's most notorious island getaway spot, is, from the standpoint of the United States, an innocent man.

[Count]

This due process thing is bullshit; should have been killed by a drone. 

[Count]

Also saw a conservative judge from the D.C. Circuit speak; he mentioned a case where some guy had been with the Taliban for a couple of weeks, then was accused by the Taliban of being a spy and held in jail for years until the American invasion. He was then accused of being a terrorist on the basis of being with the Taliban for a couple of weeks before they held him in jail for years, and even when it was clear the case was bullshit neither the Bush nor Obama administration wanted to let him go (presumably they were covering their asses), so it was up to an unelected judge to make the final decision.

The judge (again, a conservative) was annoyed by the way in which the Supreme Court kept answering the terrorism and law questions piecemeal, thus keeping people from pursuing due process for years and years even while saying they were entitled to it.

[CountDeMoney]

This due process thing is bullshit; should have been killed by a drone. 

Think of all the traffic it would've prevented.

[mongers]

Well they, the courts, got there in the end. 

From what I've read the guy seems less involved in the organisation than Hitler's driver, who didn't face any legal sanctions.