The BBC (and others) report that three of the six Guantanamo prisoners who are to face a military tribunal are citizens of US allies. Specifically, Moazzam Begg and Feroz Abbasi are British and David Hicks is Australian.
Apparently, while we don’t try our own citizens in front of a military tribunal, we’re OK with trying Aussies and Brits in a closed court. There’s really no excuse for this. In particular, Australia has suffered Al Qaeda attacks — but Australian courts aren’t good enough to try Mr. Hicks? How insulting.
And, once more, the tribunals will have the authority to sentence prisoners to death. You can say the United States would never sentence someone to death without a public trial, but if that’s the case, why not explicitly remove that authority now?
One Comment
As an American citizen I can say that this disgusts me. I believe that the current mindset for our administration (not necessary the people of the country) is that the Americans can do whatever we want, when we want, and nobody can do anything about it.