It’s always nice to get confirmation of the self-evident. The Australian Broadcasting corporation has obtained emails from two former military prosecutors claiming that, in the words of one prosecutor, the trials are “a half-hearted and disorganised effort by a skeleton group of relatively inexperienced attorneys to prosecute fairly low-level accused in a process that appears to be rigged.”

The complaints from the prosecutors echo those of defense attorneys and other military personnel who have said that the process is fundamentally unfair, with defendants and their attorneys often unable to confront witnesses for the prosecution and unable to see prosecution evidence because it is classified.

The Pentagon responded to the ABC story by saying there is no “evidence of misconduct” in the military tribunals; an assertion which may well be true, but which entirely skirts the issue of whether the proceedings are structured to favor the prosecution. In a trial weighted against the defense, there’s really no need for prosecutors to cheat.

Federal court judges have ruled on both sides of the issue, with perhaps the most powerful comments arising from a decision by Judge Joyce Green, who said in a February, 2005 ruling that the tribunals denied defendants the most elementary protections.

Although this nation unquestionably must take strong action under the leadership of the commander in chief to protect itself against enormous and unprecedented threats, that necessity cannot negate the existence of the most basic fundamental rights for which the people of this country have fought and died for well over two hundred years.

Fans of the tribunals are by and large the same people who insist that what the US does has no effect on how people throughout the world, including and perhaps especially those who are fodder for terrorist recruiters, view this country. It’s a peculiar and for all practical purposes, insane perspective.

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