A Legal Setback

It looks as if elements of the US military are becoming just as recalcitrant, old-fashioned, quaint and outdated as the forces of conservatism which are clinging to such passé pieces of legislation as habeas corpus and the right to trial here in the Poodle Archipelago. A military judge, Colonel Peter Brownback, has dismissed all charges against a Canadian guest at the Guantánomaly on what appears to be a technicality. The pawn of the forces of evil, who was capturised in Afghanistan five years ago, was designated an "enemy combatant" at a hearing in 2004; unfortunately, the Military Commissions Act, which Congress passed last year in one of its many valiant efforts to keep the Bush administration happy, specifies that only "unlawful enemy combatants" can be tried by tribunals Guantánomalous. The chief military defence lawyer at the asymmetrical warfare training camp observed that none of the remaining guests has been designated an "unlawful" enemy combatant, and shrewdly deduced that Colonel Brownback's ruling would have a "huge" impact; always assuming that the Bush administration does not simply change the rules again.