The New Republic Online: Island Mentality (1 of 2): "By the time the unclassified portion of the hearing closes, the detainee is silent and still, once again acquiescent to another year of probable detention--either at Guantánamo or, under a deal announced last week to send detainees to prisons in their own countries, in Afghanistan. 

The outcome of the hearing was probably not in question--in large part because it was not a legal proceeding. The officer advising the detainee is not a lawyer. His job is not to challenge the government's case for continued detention, but rather to help the detainee 'understand' the proceedings. The hearing doesn't ascertain the detainee's guilt or innocence, but rather the threat he poses to the United States, as well as what intelligence value he possesses. (That consideration is undertaken in a classified hearing.) What I saw, however, made it difficult to escape the conclusion that the detainee's guilt is largely taken for granted. Justice, conventionally understood, is not a priority at Guantánamo."

(Via The New Republic.)