The Washington Post’s Jerry Markon and Josh White report on the swift sentencing of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Osama bin Laden’s former driver. A jury of six military officials at Guantanamo Bay sentenced Hamdan, found guility Tuesday of materially supporting terrorism, to 5 1/2 years in prison. But the military tribunal counted his five years and one month detention at Guantanamo as prison time, meaning Hamdan’s sentence ends in January.

And yet since this is a military tribunal and not an actual system of justice, the Bush administration (which will be in power the first 20 days of January) could order the military keep him detained him anyway. Another scenario is that Hamdan will be transferred back to his home of Yemen.

Hamdan was aware that bin Laden was a mass murderer when he was driving the Al Qaeda leader. But it also sounds like there are no Al Qaeda secrets Hamdan’s withholding. Detaining Hamdan after his sentence would seem unusually cruel.-MB

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