Why?

Perhaps this explains it:

So, while a few die hard “24″ fans — and Alberto Gonzales, and Michael Mukasey — might still claim confusion about waterboarding being torture, nearly everyone else would agree that having your penis sliced with razors once a month IS torture.

According to the close-the-barn-door-late theory, should official confirmation of this behavior escape the U.S. establishment cone of silence, it would be a PR disaster. That, not the perennial whine of “National Security,” is the source of the pressure the British Judges felt.

There is a lot of smoke around the L.A. Times article suggesting Barak Obama’s Executive Order ending extraordinary renditions was bogus.

But even if Mr. Obama did end the extraordinary brand of renditions, according to a Democracy Now! interview with Michael Rattner of The Center for Constitutional Rights, there is still a hole big enough to drive tour busses full of victims into the Gulag.

Will this be another big disappointment like Mr. Obama’s plans to double the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan — and his authorization of Predator drone strikes on the tribal people of Pakistan? And will we meet other Binyam Mohameds in the future, this time created by the Obama Administration?

Right.

The White House-chosen military panel – not a jury – at Camp Justice at occupied Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, issued a split decision Wednesday in the case of the notorious driver of Osama bin Laden, Salim Hamdan. The panel acquitted him on the original conspiracy charges, but convicted him of material support for terrorism.

It was the first “trial” under the Military Commissions Act of 2006.

Today, on the panel’s recommendation, the “judge” in the case sentenced Hamdan to a mere 66 months, minus the time he’s already spent in detention. Though the “prosecutors” had asked for 30 years to life, it would seem he would be free to go after about 5 months, according to McClatchy Newspapers who’ve apparently counted.

But as announced by the military on Tuesday, even if Hamdan had been acquitted, they would still hold him as an enemy combatant for the rest of his life anyway – as they will after he’s served his 5 months.

Hail Caesar!