In what can only be seen as a move by Pentagon lawyers to get ahead of the issue before the Supreme Court weighs in this summer, the war crimes tribunal at Guantanamo Bay gave permission to the former driver for Osama bin Laden to communicate with his fellow inmates asking them to describe the nature of his employment for the al-Qaida leader. Counsel for Salim Hamdan argue that just because their client drove a terrorist around Afghanistan doesn't make him a terrorist, though now that the U.S. considers conspiracy to commit a terrorist act just as grievous as actually pulling one off, that test probably won't stand up for too long. Regardless, his lawyers asked the tribunal to allow Hamdan to communicate with other “high-value” al-Qaida operatives at the detention facility to describe the role, if any, he played in the organization.
The Supreme Court decides a package of cases, Al Odah v. Bush and Boumediene v. Bush, this summer to determine, among other things, what rights “unlawful” combatants have in U.S. courts.
