To the editor:

Osama bin Laden’s driver, Salim Hamdan, has been convicted of : driving. Good. He’s been sentenced to 5 1/2 years. Good. Charged, convicted and dealt a reasonable sentence given the crime of which he has been convicted. All within the American justice system : sort of.

The Bush administration wanted him sentenced to life imprisonment. Execution was even mentioned. For driving. Does life imprisonment and execution for being the driver – even the driver of a very evil man – remind anyone but me of news stories in recent years of some grade-school child being suspended for the school year because he sneaked a water pistol into the school building in his backpack?

Now we hear from federal authorities that regardless of the official verdict and sentence in Hamdan’s trial, our government has the right to hold him indefinitely in Guantanamo without further charge. Our democratic society’s judicial process, touted by us as being among the fairest and most impartial on the planet, is in the world spotlight with this trial. And our highest government officials are publicly speaking of brushing aside the results of this process. What are these people thinking? Are they thinking?

Welcome to Bush-league justice. Welcome to the Guantanamo Gulag.

Tom Hoffman,
Lawrence