No Defence

‘THEY are not so understanding of Osama Bin Laden’s sensitivity to criticism in the United States, where they have been known to make derogatory remarks at his expense with impunity.

”Activities today include kneeling and, er, kneeling”

However, even there they have bent over backwards to make Osama’s supporters (and assorted men with beards who happened to be in Afghanistan at the wrong time) welcome.

They have provided them with orange jumpsuits and free accommodation (indefinitely) in an all-inclusive resort called Camp Delta on the Caribbean island of Cuba.

They have also provided them with free English lessons, although they admit that they haven’t got much beyond ”I am a personal friend of Osama Bin Laden and am as guilty as hell of whatever it is I’m being accused of”.

Now, they are even going to be provided (free of charge) with defence lawyers – if the Pentagon can find any.

This morning’s Guardian reports that a team of military lawyers recruited to defend the 600 or so inmates at Guantanamo Bay have been dismissed after rebelling against the unfair way the trials have been set up.

”And some members of the new legal defence team remain deeply unhappy with the trials, believing them to be slanted towards the prosecution and an affront to modern US military justice,” it says.

Indeed, one source tells the paper: ”It’s like you took military justice, gave it to a prosecutor and said ‘Modify it in any way you want’.

”What we have done is stupid. It is, I would say, an insult to the military, to the evolution of the military justice system. They want to take us back to 1942.”

Guilty until sentenced to death, as they now say in the Pentagon.’

Posted: 3rd, December 2003 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink