US judge rules Guantánamo military tribunal can proceed

By John Burton 19 July 2008 After holding a two-hour hearing Thursday, a federal judge brushed aside constitutional objections and refused to delay the July 21 start of the military tribunal at Guantánamo Bay for Salim Ahmed Hamdan, allegedly a driver for Osama bin Laden, on charges of conspiracy and providing support for terrorism. Earlier in the day, at the US base in Cuba, the military judge presiding over the drumhead proceedings, Navy Captain Keith Allred, turned down a similar request for postponement, rejecting claims by Hamdan’s military lawyers that his rights would be violated if he had to present a defense in a trumped-up judicial system that allows hearsay and statements obtained through torture to be used against an accused. The rulings give the Bush administration a green light to make Hamdan, a citizen of... [read full story]