Sunday, January 04, 2004

Also in The New York Times today, you can read about the rapidly evaporating Guantanamo espionage cases. You probably knew that the Muslim chaplain James (Yousef) Yee was no longer being charged with espionage, but I didn't know until I read this story that the case against Ahmad al- Halabi, a translator, was also breaking down:

The military also recently dropped the most serious charges against Airman al-Halabi, including aiding the enemy, which carried a possible death sentence. Of the original 30 charges, he still faces 17, including some of attempted espionage. But his lawyer, Donald G. Rehkopf, said the "guts of the case" were gone — the charges of aiding the enemy and of using computers to transmit information abroad.

Why is this happening? The Times offers a theory:

Reservists serving as counterintelligence officers at the camp were apprehensive that they might miss some sign of infiltration of the base but were relatively inexperienced in how to handle such matters.

No offense to the reservists, but here's the CEO mentality at work in the military again, with disastrous results. In the civilian world, CEOs will do anything to avoid hiring full-time workers with full benefits -- they'd much rather hire temps and part-timers, preferring low-cost labor to experience. In Guantanamo, ex-CEO Rumsfeld's military is using weekend warriors -- well intentioned but with inadequate experience -- to determine who should be arrested and perhaps charged with the capital crime of treason. Outrageous.

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