EDITORIAL: A One-Off Deal to Get Out of Guantanamo

By The Miami Herald

Mar. 28–Anyone who values due process and the rule of law shouldn’t be counted among the many people who will celebrate Guantanamo prisoner David Hicks’ deal to plead guilty to helping anti-U.S. terrorists. Hicks is the 31-year-old Australian who unexpectedly changed his mind Monday and pleaded guilty to a charge that he gave "material support" to al Qaeda terrorists. His military-style trial was the first under a new law passed by Congress after the Supreme Court invalidated earlier procedures.

Deal good for Hicks

Thus, for the White House, the conviction is validation that the new system works. For Australia’s Prime Minister John Howard, who has been under intense pressure from a public harshly critical of the Iraq war in general and the prison at Guantanamo in particular, the deal represents a victory of his diplomatic efforts with the United States to win Hicks’ release and bring him back to Australia.

And, without a doubt, the deal is good for Hicks personally. He was in the position of a man staring down the barrel of a loaded gun. Hicks had endured five hard years in the Guantanamo prison. After his father and sister saw him this week for the first time in years, they said he appeared "pudgy" and unwell. Although Hicks gave no hint that a guilty plea was in the offing during the hearing, the proceeding stood out as yet another bad turn for him. The military judge disqualified two of the three lawyers representing him. And the remaining lawyer was one who had vociferously insisted that the judge was biased. The judge denied the charge and pressed ahead.

Under these circumstances, a reasonable person would conclude that the cards were stacked against him and take the surest route to a different address and the possibility of freedom and reunification with family. The terms of Hicks’ plea deal and possible sentencing later this week have yet to be worked out. But owing to a diplomatic agreement between the United States and Australia, Hicks was the only one among the nearly 400 prisoners at Guantanamo who was assured of being returned home upon leaving there. Simple choice: More of the same, or a chance, ultimately, for freedom.

America loses

The loser in this deal is America’s sterling record as a paragon of due process and the rule of law. A military trial in which classified evidence is permissible — some of it based on hearsay and coerced testimony — does serious damage to America’s image at home and abroad.

Hicks’ plea is a bargain for him and his family, and a good deal for politicians. But it is no bargain for U.S. legal jurisprudence.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Miami Herald

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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