US judge rules Guantánamo military tribunal can proceed

Earlier in the day, at the US base in Cuba, the military judge presiding over the drumhead proceedings, Navy Captain Keith Allred, turned down a similar request for postponement, rejecting claims by Hamdans military lawyers that his rights would be violated if he had to present a defense in a trumped-up judicial system that allows hearsay and statements obtained through torture to be used against an accused.

The rulings give the Bush administration a green light to make Hamdan, a citizen of Yemen, the first of the 265 remaining Guantánamo prisoners to be tried before a military tribunal, an extraordinary procedure widely denounced as violating numerous constitutional guarantees and international human rights treaties.

The rulings fly in the face of recent Supreme Court decisions, holding that both the US Constitution and the Geneva Conventions apply to Guantánamo Bay prisoners.

Hamdan denies that he participated in any terrorist conspiracies, claiming he was no more than a servant who for $200 a month provided personal services to bin Laden. If convicted, Hamdan could receive a life sentence.

The US military has indicted another 18 prisoners as war criminals and announced plans to drag some 80 captives in all before the military commissions.

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