Consider the case of Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden’s driver and bodyguard, who knew that Al Qaeda was responsible for the 1998 East Africa embassy bombings and the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, and also knew about 9/11 before it happened. He was tried in a military commission in 2008, and only received a five and a half year sentence. Because of time served, he was soon released. Today, he is free in Yemen.
This isn’t to say military commissions are bad. Sometimes they are a more suitable place to try terrorists than civilian courts. It depends on factors like the intended target and type of evidence. But it’s a decision that the Justice Department and prosecutors are best suited to make…
When harsh interrogation techniques were first introduced in 2002, agents from the FBI, NCIS, and the CIA protested — warning they were not only ineffective, but also ignored the long game — and would make future trials difficult.
Their warnings have been proven right.
What’s ironic about [Peter] King’s condemnations of the Ghailani trial is that he was a strong advocate of using coercive techniques.
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