Juror: Hamdan Didn't Seem Like Al-Qaida Warrior
by John McChesney
Judge Keith Allred, a Navy captain, said jury members could discuss the case as long as they didn't talk about the opinions of other members or discuss classified matters.Lt. Col. Patrick questioned the government's judgment in going after Hamdan in its first trial.
"This was kind of like using the hand grenade on the horsefly. If you throw the book at this guy, then what do you do about — there are plenty of guys down there that are really bad guys that need to have the book thrown at them, but if you do a 30 minimum , which was the prosecution's request, and they would have preferred life, where do you step up from that?" Lt. Col. Patrick said.
The prosecution did its best to show Hamdan as a hardened al-Qaida warrior who had taken a personal bayat, or oath of loyalty, to al-Qaida.Lt. Col. Patrick"In none of the evidence presented did you ever see him brandishing a weapon at all. Even when he was captured and the evidence all showed that there was an AK-47 right there in the front seat, the guys behind him and in front of him deployed weapons, he bailed out of the car and ran," Lt. Col. Patrick said.
audio and more at:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93490163
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