SpikedRocker
21 Jul 2008, 07:35am
A news double header from me. Since these just came down on the wires, I thought they were very interesting.
First, the war crimes trial:
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - The first Guantanamo war
crimes trial began Monday with a not guilty plea from a former
driver and alleged bodyguard for Osama bin Laden.
Salim Hamdan, a Yemeni, entered the plea through his lawyer at
the U.S. Navy base in Cuba.
He is the first prisoner to face a U.S. war crimes trial since
World War II.
Judge Keith Allred, a Navy captain, called a jury pool of
American military officers into the courtroom and began reading
them instructions. A minimum of five of the 13 officers must be
selected for the trial.
Hamdan, a Yemeni, wore a khaki prison jumpsuit to the courtroom.
The flowing white robe and headdress he wore at pretrial hearings
was not cleaned in time for his trial, said Charles Swift, one of
his civilian attorneys.
The trial is expected to take three to four weeks, with
testimony from nearly two dozen Pentagon witnesses.
Hamdan was captured at a roadblock in Afghanistan in November
2001, allegedly with two surface-to-air missiles in the car. But
his lawyers say he was merely a low-level driver and mechanic
without any role in the al-Qaida conspiracy against the United
States.
Hamdan was taken to Guantanamo in May 2002 and selected as one
of the first inmates to face prosecution. His case has created
repeated legal obstacles for the Pentagon including a Supreme Court
ruling that struck down an earlier version of the tribunal system.
Allred began the proceedings Monday by indicating that he would
not allow the government to use some of the evidence interrogators
obtained from Hamdan during his detention in Afghanistan. Defense
lawyers have argued those statements were tainted by "coercive"
techniques and the fact that interrogators did not advise him of a
right against self-incrimination.
The U.S. has so far charged 20 Guantanamo prisoners and military
officials say they expect to prosecute about 80 in all.
And then the Wardrobe Malfuctions:
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A federal appeals court on Monday threw out
a $550,000 indecency fine against CBS Corp. for the 2004 Super Bowl
halftime show that ended with Janet Jackson's breast-baring
"wardrobe malfunction."
The three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
ruled that the Federal Communications Commission "acted
arbitrarily and capriciously" in issuing the fine for the fleeting
image of nudity.
The 90 million people watching the Super Bowl, many of them
children, heard Justin Timberlake sing, "Gonna have you naked by
the end of this song," as he reached for Jackson's bustier.
The court found that the FCC deviated from its nearly 30-year
practice of fining indecent broadcast programming only when it was
so "pervasive as to amount to 'shock treatment' for the
audience."
"Like any agency, the FCC may change its policies without
judicial second-guessing," the court said. "But it cannot change
a well-established course of action without supplying notice of and
a reasoned explanation for its policy departure."
First, the war crimes trial:
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - The first Guantanamo war
crimes trial began Monday with a not guilty plea from a former
driver and alleged bodyguard for Osama bin Laden.
Salim Hamdan, a Yemeni, entered the plea through his lawyer at
the U.S. Navy base in Cuba.
He is the first prisoner to face a U.S. war crimes trial since
World War II.
Judge Keith Allred, a Navy captain, called a jury pool of
American military officers into the courtroom and began reading
them instructions. A minimum of five of the 13 officers must be
selected for the trial.
Hamdan, a Yemeni, wore a khaki prison jumpsuit to the courtroom.
The flowing white robe and headdress he wore at pretrial hearings
was not cleaned in time for his trial, said Charles Swift, one of
his civilian attorneys.
The trial is expected to take three to four weeks, with
testimony from nearly two dozen Pentagon witnesses.
Hamdan was captured at a roadblock in Afghanistan in November
2001, allegedly with two surface-to-air missiles in the car. But
his lawyers say he was merely a low-level driver and mechanic
without any role in the al-Qaida conspiracy against the United
States.
Hamdan was taken to Guantanamo in May 2002 and selected as one
of the first inmates to face prosecution. His case has created
repeated legal obstacles for the Pentagon including a Supreme Court
ruling that struck down an earlier version of the tribunal system.
Allred began the proceedings Monday by indicating that he would
not allow the government to use some of the evidence interrogators
obtained from Hamdan during his detention in Afghanistan. Defense
lawyers have argued those statements were tainted by "coercive"
techniques and the fact that interrogators did not advise him of a
right against self-incrimination.
The U.S. has so far charged 20 Guantanamo prisoners and military
officials say they expect to prosecute about 80 in all.
And then the Wardrobe Malfuctions:
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A federal appeals court on Monday threw out
a $550,000 indecency fine against CBS Corp. for the 2004 Super Bowl
halftime show that ended with Janet Jackson's breast-baring
"wardrobe malfunction."
The three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
ruled that the Federal Communications Commission "acted
arbitrarily and capriciously" in issuing the fine for the fleeting
image of nudity.
The 90 million people watching the Super Bowl, many of them
children, heard Justin Timberlake sing, "Gonna have you naked by
the end of this song," as he reached for Jackson's bustier.
The court found that the FCC deviated from its nearly 30-year
practice of fining indecent broadcast programming only when it was
so "pervasive as to amount to 'shock treatment' for the
audience."
"Like any agency, the FCC may change its policies without
judicial second-guessing," the court said. "But it cannot change
a well-established course of action without supplying notice of and
a reasoned explanation for its policy departure."