American Justice? No… American Shame

Salim Ahmed Hamdan, the winning plaintiff in the landmark case Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, is being tried before a military commission in Guantanamo Bay. Ben Wizner describes a recent exchange between Hamdan and Judge Allred:

Hamdan had once again stated that he intended to leave the court and to instruct his attorneys not to proceed in his absence. The judge pleaded with Hamdan to reconsider:

“Mr. Hamdan, I think you should have great faith in American law, because you have already been to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court said to the President of the United States, ‘You cannot do that to Mr. Hamdan.’ Your name is printed in our law books. You won against the United States.”

The judge was correct, of course — it is indeed extraordinary that our system allows an imprisoned Yemeni with a fourth-grade education to take on the president and Secretary of Defense — and prevail. But, Hamdan wanted to know, to what end? Years later, he was back at square one. “We went to the Supreme Court and the Court made a decision. Then the government went to Congress and they changed the law. Why? Just for my case?” Hamdan had earlier made the same point more colorfully: “If you ask me what is the color of this paper, I say white. You say black. I say white. You say black. I say, okay, it’s black — and you say white. This is the American government.”

Hamdan is correct. The US government is conducting these trials with the intent of getting convictions in any way possible, because acquittals would be embarrassing. The concept that American justice should above all fair seems to have eluded the Bush administration and its lackeys.

This country may never be able to shed the burden of shame that has been laid upon it in the last seven years.

(hat tip: Firedoglake)