Guantanamo Only Looks Like a Real Trial

But Hamdan will be eligible for release in about 5 months

(NEWSER) - Salim Hamdan, the driver for Osama bin Laden convicted of providing material support for terrorism, was sentenced to five and a half years in prison today, Reuters reports. The military jury's sentence takes into effect time served at Guantanamo Bay, making him eligible for release in about 5 months. The US, however, insists it can hold him indefinitely as an "enemy combatant." More»

Bin Laden driver faces first US war crimes tribunal since WWII

(NEWSER) - The trial of Osama bin Laden's former driver is set to begin at Guantanamo Bay today. Salim Hamdan, accused of transporting weapons, will be tried by the first military commission since the end of World War II, reports the Washington Post.The proceedings promise to be the first big test of the controversial military justice system introduced after the 9/11 attacks. More»

Military courts wouldn't allow torture evidence, get civilian review

(NEWSER) - Lawyers and soldiers are divided on how to deal with enemy combatants, but “it shouldn’t be too hard to find a middle ground,” writes Joe Klein in Time, because both arguments “are being made by unappealing extremists.” It’s unrealistic to try detainees in open civilian courts, as the ACLU wants, but Dick Cheney’s vision of an all-powerful executive imprisoning them forever is reprehensible. More»

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama is leaning towards reinstituting military commissions as a way of trying Guantanamo detainees, and could begin publicly doing so as soon as next week, officials tell the New York Times. Obama has been a staunch critic of the system, but the administration is increasingly worried about the hazards of trying the detainees in federal courts. More»

Convict transferred to Yemen to serve remainder of sentence

(NEWSER) - Salim Hamdan, the former driver of Osama bin Laden and one of only two suspected terrorists convicted at Guantanamo Bay, is being transferred to his homeland of Yemen. Hamdan was sentenced in August to just 5 months' detention on top of the 5 years he served at the prison camp, far less than military prosecutors sought. The move may signal a concession of failure on the part of the Bush administration, whose request that Hamdan's sentence be reexamined was denied, the Los Angeles Times reports. More»