Hamdan Gets Slap on the Wrist: 66 Months
Posted on August 7, 2008
After all the ranting and raving from the ACLU and the NY Times about how unfair the military trial for Osama Bin Laden’s driver was, the final sentence was as lenient as anyone could ask for.
Salim Hamdan’s sentence of 5 1/2 years, including five years and a month already served at Guantanamo Bay, fell far short of the 30 years to life that prosecutors wanted. It now goes for mandatory review to a Pentagon official who can shorten the sentence but not extend it.
It remains unclear what will happen to Hamdan once his sentence is served, since the U.S. military has said it won’t release anyone who still represents a threat. The judge, Navy Capt. Keith Allred, said Hamdan would likely be eligible for the same administrative review process as other prisoners.
Critics of military tribunals may find themselves taken aback by the leniency shown in this process. Supporters of military tribunals may also find themselves equally nonplussed about this result, assuming that such processes would treat terrorists much more strictly than civil courts. In the end, though, it may just be that the tribunal process works to justly conclude each of these cases, and that Hamdan may just be a flunky that poses no further risk to the US.
I’m somewhere in between. I’m a bit taken aback by how lenient this sentence was and hope that folks like the ACLU and their anti-military propaganda didn’t influence things out of proportion. After seven years of back and forth on this one low level piece of scum, and getting such a light sentence in the end, it makes one wonder why we even capture the enemy. Shoot them on the spot when you catch them!
On the other hand, the fair treatment by our military personnel only make the ACLU accusations look as ridiculous as they truly are. Of course this fair trial will not be enough for the ACLU and their kind. As long as a terror supporter isn’t free they will fight for their freedom.
All I can say is that he might get out in five months, but he’s going to be haunted in ways he never dreamed for the rest of his life. Justice has a way of finding you out whether or not the courts do. It’s the law of the universe.
However it’s precisely this kind of spineless weakness that handed us 9/11 in the first place. This sentence needed to be at the minimum life in prison. Again, one of the great miscarriages of justice in years.
Whether he participated or not in the 9/11 attacks, he aided and abetted the one who did, and instead of getting the punishment he deserved he gets a wink and a nod.
This show of weakness only strengthens our enemy’s resolve.
Somewhere Osama is smiling, knowing he was right. We don’t have the stomach to fight the war on terror after all.
» Filed Under 1st Amendment, ACLU, Islamicfascism, News, Politics As Usual, Supreme Court, War On Terror, military, terrorism
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Well, you got the trial you wanted under the laws you wanted and under the conditions you wanted and it didn’t go your way. And, therefore, you now present yourselves as whiners.
You’re flip-flopping just like McCain and Bush have been doing for several years which, frankly, does far, far more than making you people look foolish.
Take your ball and go home. You will not be missed. You do not have nor have ever had anything meritorious to contribute to the foreign, military, economic, or domestic policies of the United States.
You and your fellow travelers have a conspicuous absence of contact with reality or with the majority of sane citizens of the United States.
Shut up your freakin pie hole you stupid idiot. You have no idea what in the heck you’re talking about. I wanted him SHOT by a FIRING SQUAD. I did not want a trial. HE WAS OBL’s DRIVER. CAN YOU READ?
I am so disgusted. Yes, I am wrong for taking it out on your reader. I know this. But when will Americans wake up to the fact that we are in a war whether or not we want to be? THEY ARE AT WAR WITH US. Damn idiots.