Guantanamo Showdown


 

Publication Date: January 2008

Publisher: Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace

Author(s): Benjamin Wittes

Research Area: Law and ethics

Keywords: Terrorism; Guantanamo Bay

Type: Brief

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

The charges prosecutors filed on February 11, 2008, against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and five other alleged September 11 conspirators cannot proceed credibly to trial in anything less than a viable court system. More than six years after the Bush administration first introduced military commissions, finally we will learn whether they offer a plausible means of trying terrorists or whether the system is the total flop it has seemed to be.

This essay appeared in the New Republic online on February 14, 2008.