U.S. Military loses Hamdan's records

Here's the link. And I should probably "conveniently" to that title. It's not usually the military behind these sorts of dirty tricks - or at least not JAGs. But I'm not optimistic that there's a simple or innocent explanation behind this. Any legal office involved in the equivalent of a court-martial that's been going on for 6 years (as Hamdan has) would have tracked down all records by now.

Still, the defense counsel does admit that, "All known records have been produced with the exception of the 2002 Gitmo records." So maybe it's more innocent that it looks at first glance.

Here's an interesting couple of lines from the article. The Justice Department is relying, for one of the charges against Hamdan, in part on the precedent of "an 1865 legal opinion from the U.S. Civil War era that authorized summary execution for 'banditti, jayhawkers' and others who join marauding bands." In response to that citation, "Hamdan's civilian lawyer, Joseph McMillan, said the law has since evolved and marauders may no longer be 'hunted down like wolves' and summarily executed." Unfortunately, I think the current occupants of the Justice Department tend to disagree with Mr. McMillan.