Rule Of Law Update

Yesterday a judge in the war crimes tribunal for Osama bin Laden's driver Salim Hamdan barred some evidence from the proceedings because of the way in which it was gathered.

The judge in the first American war crimes trial since World War II barred evidence on Monday that interrogators obtained from Osama bin Laden's driver, ruling he was subjected to "highly coercive" conditions in Afghanistan.

But Judge Keith Allred, a Navy captain, left the door open for the prosecution to use statements Salim Hamdan made at Guantanamo, despite defense claims that all of his statements were tainted by alleged abuse including sleep deprivation and solitary confinement.

To be clear, these military commissions are expected to be little more than show trials. And yet, even there, what the Bush Administration authorized shocks the conscience to the degree that evidence has to be thrown out. Not only is torture ineffective and yields bad results, it can't be used to prosecute, either.

Here's what they did to Hamdan:

At Bagram, Hamdan says he was kept in isolation 24 hours a day with his hands and feet restrained, and armed soldiers prompted him to talk by kneeing him in the back. He says his captors at Panshir repeatedly tied him up, put a bag over his head and knocked him the ground.

Will there ever be a reckoning in this country? And if those in the Administration are arguing that evidence obtained through torture is admissable, is that a giveaway for what we can do to them?.