The Bush administration announced that it planned to try foreign terrorism suspects by special military commissions in November 2001, shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks
In January 2002 the US began sending persons apprehended in the "war on terror" to the US military base at Guantanamo Bay, and the Pentagon drafted rules to hold military commissions there. These measures were taken in part to prevent US courts from hearing claims by detainees about the legal basis for their detention or charges of mistreatment. Human Rights Watch believes that the US federal courts are fully capable of prosecuting terrorism suspects.
In June 2006, the US Supreme Court ruled that the military commissions were unlawful because they violated both the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the Geneva Conventions and because the president had not sought congressional authority establishing them. In September 2006, Congress passed the Military Commissions Act, authorizing a new system of military commissions.
Now, more than six years after the commissions were first announced, only two people have been convicted. The first, Australian David Hicks, pleaded guilty in April 2007 to one count of providing material support to terrorism in exchange for a nine-month sentence, which he served in Australia. The second, Osama bin Laden’s former driver, Salim Hamdan, went to trial in July 2008 and was sentenced to five and a half years for providing material support to terrorism. Hamdan was given five years credit for time served and will finish his sentence on December 31, 2008, however the Bush administration maintains that the US has the right to hold him as an enemy combatant until the end of the so-called “global war on terror.”
Meanwhile, the military commissions have been subjected to numerous legal challenges and come under a barrage of criticism that they do not provide fundamental fair trial rights. Last year the commissions’ chief military prosecutor resigned stating that it would be impossible for detainees to receive full, fair and open trials in the presently constituted system. Among the primary concerns are the commissions’ vulnerability to executive pressure, what looks like an effort to rush the cases to trial and the allowance of evidence obtained through abuse. Even Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has warned that commission trials at Guantanamo will have a "taint" to them.
Despite widespread concerns about the commissions raised in the United States and abroad, commission hearings are proceeding.
