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Gitmo tribunals: Fatally flawed?

David Hicks pleaded guilty to a minor charge - no doubt motivated to simply get out of Gitmo after 5 years "doing" it very hard there. Many commentators, lawyers and civil libertarians have challenged the whole military tribunal regime set up by the Bush Administration to deal with those imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay.

Now comes news today - as reported in The Guardian here - that the so-called trials at Gitmo are prospectively all fatally flawed. The dismissal of all charges against one detainee [incidentally, only aged 15 when apprehended] today suggests that all trials to follow will face the same problem.

"The White House's legal regime at Guántanamo Bay was thrown into chaos today when a military judge threw out all charges against a detainee held there since he was 15.
The decision by the judge, Colonel Peter Brownback, to dismiss all charges against the detainee, Omar Khadr, on technical grounds, has broad implications for the Bush Administration's system of military tribunals because the technicality appears to apply to all 385 prisoners held at Guántanamo."

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