I Think "Show Trial" Pretty Much Sums It Up

Admit it - you thought it, but you didn't want to. A few weeks ago when Salim Hamdan's military tribunal wound up with a 5.5 year sentence, someplace in the back of your mind you thought, "Bush'll never let him go." Right? Well, guess what:

Hamdan's sentence of 5 1/2 years, which amounts to five more months in U.S. custody, was far lighter than some Pentagon officials had expected. Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of at least 30 years, and now officials are preparing for the possibility of having to set him free or hold him indefinitely as an 'enemy combatant.'

Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said it has always been the Defense Department's position that detainees could be held as enemy combatants even after acquittal at military commissions or after serving a prison sentence. 'That's always been on our minds in terms of a scenario we could face,' he said. 'He will serve his time for the conviction and then he will still be an enemy combatant, and as an enemy combatant the process for potential transfer or release will apply.'

For fuck's sake, why even bother with a trial, then? At least someone in the Pentagon thinks that might pose a PR problem:

Defense Department officials said there are concerns about the public perception of holding Hamdan after his prison term runs out, because it could label the military commissions a 'show process' with no meaning to its sentences. They also worry about possible precedents that could be set in U.S. courts if Hamdan's attorneys immediately file a habeas corpus petition seeking his release in five months. Hamdan previously won a Supreme Court case that invalidated the Bush administration's earlier military commissions procedures.

I wish I could say I was surprised.