"Your Honor - this is Hamdan - I am speaking to you." 

What followed was a riveting exchange between Judge Keith Allred and Hamdan - an exchange that revealed the enormous distance between the judge's good-faith and compassionate efforts to provide a fair trial in a flawed system, and Hamdan's increasing frustration with a legal system whose rules seem to change with each of his victories.

For compelling accounts of that exchange, see here and here. Rather than repeat them, I want to focus on one of the judge's comments. 

Hamdan had once again stated that he intended to leave the court and to instruct his attorneys not to proceed in his absence. The judge pleaded with Hamdan to reconsider: 

"Mr. Hamdan, I think you should have great faith in American law, because you have already been to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court said to the President of the United States, 'You cannot do that to Mr. Hamdan.' Your name is printed in our law books. You won against the United States." 

The judge was correct, of course - it is indeed extraordinary that our system allows an imprisoned Yemeni with a fourth-grade education to take on the president and Secretary of Defense and prevail.  

But, Hamdan wanted to know, to what end? Years later, he was back at square one. "We went to the Supreme Court and the Court made a decision. Then the government went to Congress and they changed the law. Why? Just for my case?" Hamdan had earlier made the same point more colorfully:  

"If you ask me what is the color of this paper, I say white. You say black. I say white. You say black. I say, okay, it's black - and you say white. This is the American government." 

"Tales I Win, Heads You Lose": Inside The Twisted World Of Gitmo's Military Commissions 

later in proceedings ….. 

Military prosecutor Army Lieutenant Colonel William Britt said in an affidavit presented on Tuesday that the Government-appointed lawyer, Air Force Brigadier General Thomas Hartmann, explained his selections this way: "This case is going to seize the imagination of the American public and that case won't." 

Navy Lieutenant-Commander Brian Mizer read the affidavit in court as he sought dismissal of charges against his client, Yemeni prisoner Salim Hamdan, who was once Osama bin Laden's driver. 

Commander Mizer argued the charges should be dismissed on the grounds that improper meddling by senior officials had tainted the tribunals. Colonel Britt's affidavit was originally submitted to an internal Pentagon investigation of the Office of Military Commissions, which oversees prosecutions at Guantanamo. 

Political Impact Decides Which Cases Go To Trial 

elsewhere in the pursuit of the yankee justice myth …..

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) must stop stonewalling congressional oversight committees and release vital documents related to the program of secret detentions, renditions, and torture, three prominent human rights groups said today. Amnesty International USA (AIUSA), the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the International Human Rights Clinic at NYU School of Law (NYU IHRC) reiterated their call for information, following the CIA's filing of a summary judgment motion this week to end a lawsuit and avoid turning over more than 7,000 documents related to its secret "ghost" detention and extraordinary rendition program. This motion is in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed in federal court last June by these groups. The organizations will file their response brief next month.

Among other assertions, the CIA claimed that it did not have to release the documents because many consist of correspondence with the White House or top Bush administration officials, or because they are between parties seeking legal advice on the programs, including guidance on the legality of certain interrogation procedures. The CIA confirmed that it requested -- and received -- legal advice from attorneys at the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel concerning these procedures.

"For the first time, the CIA has acknowledged that extensive records exist relating to its use of enforced disappearances and secret prisons," said Curt Goering, AIUSA senior deputy executive director. "Given what we already know about documents written by Bush administration officials trying to justify torture and other human rights crimes, one does not need a fertile imagination to conclude that the real reason for refusing to disclose these documents has more to do with avoiding disclosure of criminal activity than national security."

CIA Admits To Existence Of 7,000 Documents On Secret Detention, Rendition & Torture