Hicks, Cheney, Howard-The deal

[IChing]

Who negotiated the plea-bargain? Hicks' lawyer. Who did he negotiate with?
Not the prosecutors, as would be normal, but Susan J. Crawford, the top military
commission official. Who is Susan J. Crawford?
She served as Dick Cheney's Inspector General while he was Defense Secretary.

So Cheney goes to Australia and meets with John Howard who tells him
that the Hicks case is killing him in Australia, and he may
lose the next election because of it.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/04/hicks_cheney_ho.html

[Kagemusha]

1. Here's the thing: with tribunals wholly under exec branch control, why not?

Why not make a pure political deal and undermine the whole "justice" thing when there's no real law and no real due process and no real accountability? Where's the disincentive to use the tribunal system as a political football, effectively doing plea deals with foreign governments and doing horse-trading with the duration of the denial of a man's freedom and where he shall be located while that freedom is denied? Why not? What possible downside is there to it?