Here’s a legal analysis of what just happened in the David Hicks case. Money quote:
The crime Hicks pleaded to, providing material support to terrorism, is a felony triable in regular federal courts, but not a law of war violation military commissions can lawfully try. The inclusion of this offense in the MCA could allow future commissions exercising hybrid jurisdiction over law of war and statutory offenses to try acts committed after that law was enacted. But retroactive jurisdiction is only permissible over acts clearly violating international law at the time they were committed. Jurisdiction over Hicks, whose conduct dates back to 2001, would be unlawfully ex post facto. The Government bears the burden of proving that this offense violates the law of war, for which I have found no precedent in five years of academic research into military justice and the law of war. If the commission lacks jurisdiction over the charge, any court reviewing the decision per se, or Hicks’ subsequent incarceration, should be obligated to set the conviction aside or order his release from custody.
I’m not qualified to make a legal judgment on this, but felt it worth passing along. Glazier believes the case may be a serious blow to the recently legislated military commissions law.
The Dish 