Redstate

By James Jay Carafano Posted in War — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

At the hearing of Omar Khadr, a detainee at Guantanamo Bay accused of murder and other crimes during the war in Afghanistan, the prosecutor seemed ready to go to war himself.

The defense team refused to challenge the right of the tribunal (established last year by Congress in the Military Commissions Act of 2006) to have jurisdiction over the case. The prosecution, it appeared, had really hoped that the defense would raise that objection. The prosecutor apparently had a slew of witnesses and evidence ready to go argue that under the statute the Military Commission had every right to handle the case. The evidence included a video of Khadr making and planting bombs and witnesses that saw him in combat in Afghanistan.

It appeared that the prosecutor was most intent in making the point that he was ready to go to trial and that periodic defense claims that the defendant had not been granted access to “a speedy trial,” had nothing to do with the government not being ready to make its case.

Since the defense team didn’t bite. There was little left to be done. The judge called a recess ending the hearing. Actually getting to the case could be months off as the judge sifts through motions and defense lawyers sift through evidence.

That’s where it ended. Not much got done. But what got done says a lot. The defense lawyer did his job, defending his client. The prosecutor pressed his case. The Judge bent over backwards to appear fair and impartial to both sides. That is the way the legal system is supposed to work.

The real winner here is the American people who can go to bed tonight knowing there are military officers out there trying their hardest to follow of the rule-of-law. That in itself is a victory in the long war.

While the hearing ended, the controversy continued. Observers and press started to spin the story the second they left the court room.

The hearing of Omar Khadr, captured in Afghanistan and accused of murder and other crimes, ended today here at the Military Commissions building in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The most remarkable aspect of the hearings was the great lengths everyone went—the judge, the prosecutor, and the defense lawyers to do their jobs. It is hard to sit through the proceedings and not walk away with the feeling that the military is committed to following the rule of law to the letter of the law.

You would, however, be hard pressed to know that listening to some of the spin from observers after the hearing.

It was pretty clear from the start that some observers, with initials like the ACLU, were here to be more advocates than observers. Every motion, objection, and point raised was cited as evidence that there must be something terribly wrong with the proceedings, that they can’t be constitutional, otherwise why would the defense be raising all these problems?

Of course, raising issues is what the defense is supposed to do—that’s their job. All the hearings today really showed was that judges and lawyers are doing what judges and lawyers are required to do by law. The hearing was a testament to the government’s effort to follow the rule of law—not an indictment.

Of course, the organizations with initials were the first to rush to the camera to register their complaints and the press rushed to hear them.

Of course, that is their job too. Advocacy groups advocate and the free press covers stories however it damn well pleases. That’s part of how free societies handle legal proceedings as well.

Of course, the fact that everybody: the commission, the NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and the press got to do their jobs is just another sign that the system is working as it should.