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That US Supreme Court decision in a nutshell

So, what was it about that US Supreme Court decision the other day - and its alleged importance?

This part of a NY Times editorial encapsulates it fully:

"Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni being held in Guantánamo, has been charged with conspiring to help Al Qaeda. The Bush administration has contended that he and the other prisoners there are not covered either by congressional laws governing military trials or by the Geneva Conventions on treatment of prisoners of war. Instead, Hamdan was put on trial before a military tribunal where defendants can be excluded from the proceedings and convicted based on evidence kept secret from them and their lawyers. Prosecutors can also rely on hearsay, coerced testimony and unsworn statements.

The Supreme Court held that these rules violate the standards Congress set in the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which requires tribunals to offer the same protections, whenever practicable, as other military trials. It also ruled that the tribunals fall short of the kind of trial required by the Geneva Conventions. It rejected the administration's claim that these venerable international standards cannot be invoked in an American court."

What is more than troubling is that PM Howard and A-G Ruddock not once criticised a system of "military tribunals" - as it effected David Hicks - so far removed from a judicial approach let alone fairness on any level. And these 2 men are lawyers by training?

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