Seattle University Honors Hamden Lawyer

Tweet "From the beginning, the administration maintained that a military commission was a full and fair trial. In it, they said a full and fair trial could be held without the accused actually being present ... that he didn't have the right to see evidence against him or her, that evidence could be put in that had been obtained by physical or mental coercion, that that evidence could be used to convict, that the accused did not have a right to represent themselves. And I said, 'There went the Bill of Rights.' "

"For his taking the case and side-tracking his career, Swift was passed over for promotion shortly after the Supreme Court's ruling in June -- meaning that he is being forced to retire next spring under the military's "up or out" promotion system. He has said he hopes to continue representing Hamdan.

"On Friday, Swift recalled visiting Hamdan's family in Yemen with a female colleague. The family's grandmother gathered all of the young girls, telling them the woman had studied hard to become a lawyer. If they studied hard, the grandmother said, they could become anything they wanted.

"She is the single most dangerous weapon against Osama bin Laden there is in the world," Swift said.