the Military Commission system “has none of the guarantees of regular trials. Coerced and hearsay evidence can be used. There is no jury — only a group of military officers and the judge is appointed by the Bush administration.”

“Much of the trial can be held in secret and the defendant does not get to see all of the evidence,” Ratner noted. “After this sham process the defendant, if convicted, can receive the death penalty. There is a barbarity to the actions of the Bush administration that is without precedent.”

In the Hamdan case, the judge ruled that the military must appoint a replacement to Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, the legal adviser to the military tribunals

Hartmann “was basically telling (Col. Morris)

‘Look, there’s an election coming up. It’s in November. We’ve got to have prosecutions now against the high-profile guys. It doesn’t matter if you’re not ready to prosecute them, but we need Khalid Sheikh Mohammed on trial because of electioneering’.”