Secret Evidence Bogs Down Gitmo Hearings
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba – The secrecy shrouding government files on terror suspects is bogging down the Pentagon’s effort to hold trials at Guantanamo Bay, with defense attorneys accusing the government of withholding potential exculpatory evidence.
At pretrial hearings this week, attorneys for two al-Qaida suspects captured in Afghanistan said they need more access to interrogators, witnesses and records. Prosecutors objected, citing a need to protect the identities of U.S. service members and other security concerns.
The hearings did not resolve the disputes, which appear likely to further delay the launch of first U.S. war-crime tribunals since the World War II era. The first detainees were charged more than three years ago, but repeated legal challenges have kept any from going to trial.
“We’re going to have to see how willing the judges are to interpret the rules so as to give defense counsel some kind of chance to actually defend their clients,” said Navy Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler, a defense attorney for detainee Omar Khadr. “That means litigating these discovery issues and that takes time.”
Trials are scheduled to begin this spring for Khadr, who is accused of hurling a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier in 2002, and Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a former driver for Osama bin Laden who allegedly also delivered weapons for al-Qaida.
They are minor figures compared with the 15 “high-value” detainees - including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks - who are among those expected to face charges. Secrecy may be even a bigger issue in their trials.
The New York Times reported Saturday that military prosecutors are nearing the end of preparations for the “first sweeping case” against as many as six Guantanamo detainees suspected in the Sept. 11 plot - Mohammed likely among them.
The law authorizing the war-crimes tribunals allows the use of classified evidence, and prosecutors say they fulfill their obligation to share it with the other side. But some defense attorneys say the government uses too narrow an interpretation of what information is relevant and should be provided to the defense.
Classified evidence will likely play an increasingly central role as the government forges ahead with plans to prosecute about 80 of the roughly 275 men held at this isolated U.S. Navy base on suspicion of terrorism or links to the Taliban or al-Qaida.
A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, said the government’s decisions to classify evidence often reflect a need to protect U.S. forces still fighting in Afghanistan.
“The hearings this week demonstrated some of the complexities involved in a new type of war against a new type of enemy,” he said, while expressing optimism. “On balance, we’re making progress and moving forward.”
In Hamdan’s case, his attorneys asked the military judge to provide them access to government employees who interrogated Hamdan after his capture in November 2001. One of his attorneys, Charles Swift, said the defense wants to determine whether Hamdan made any statements through coercion.
Hamdan’s defense team said they have been provided with only partial, incriminating portions of his interrogation transcripts - an accusation that prosecutors denied.
“Every statement that he has made we have provided,” said Army Col. Larry Morris, the chief prosecutor for the military tribunals.
In Khadr’s case, Kuebler said the government has refused to put defense lawyers in touch with several eyewitnesses to the 2002 firefight in Afghanistan which Khadr, who was then 15, allegedly hurled a grenade that killed Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer.
At one of the hearings this week, the government inadvertently released a witness account that raised doubt over whether Khadr threw the grenade. Prosecutors later said they had planned to hand out a redacted version, but Kuebler said he believed the government meant to keep the witness account from the public.
“There’s no openness about this process,” he said.
The military commissions, as the tribunals are called, convicted one detainee - David Hicks of Australia - but it was through a plea bargain before his trial even began.
© 2008 The Associated Press
Wouldn’t it be more demoralizing to some hostile “Qaida,” to see ACCURATE information used against them in open court, rather than to have this weak-kneed, lame prosecution?
Qaida should now be interpreting this: “Six years they’ve had these guys and they still haven’t found us.”
The real intention here is not justice, but terror: complete, intentional destruction by the Bush/Clinton gang, of all rights, dignity and decency within and without our national borders.
Now that Americans have come to accept imprisonment without legal process, we can get busy putting dissidents away. Maybe we can skip a step and just shoot them down in the streets, as we do in Iraq and Afghanistan. Americans prefer totalitarian government, and why not? It least we all know where we stand.
Gitmo was a fiasco before the US Pigs got their imperial comeuppance on 9/11. US Pigs, get off the Cuban island where you are despised. US Pigs, get out of Iraq where you are despised. US Pigs, get out of Afghanistan where you are despised. US Pigs, get out of Saudi Arabia where you are despised. US Pigs, get out of Jordan and Egypt where you are despised. US Pigs, get out of the Persian gulf where you are despised.
They should write to Australia asking for more kangaroos
It should be Bush and Cheney, waiting for the trap to open.
The name of this game is “I’ve Got A Secret”; the prosecution controls the evidence by putting a cloak of secrecy over it. This action assures there cannot be a fair trial. Guantanamo has done grave damage to America’s reputation and to the causes of human rights and civil liberties around the world. This is Bush’s legacy.
The United States has forfeited its right to criticize any other countries on their elections or judicial processes, because we have amply demonstrated that we don’t trust justice or democracy any more; why should anyone else?
On Thursday Amy Goodman had Philip Zelikow, the executive director of the 9/11 Commission on. They discussed, among other things, that 1/4 or so of the entire Commission report referenced information gained by torture.
Michael Ratner, Executive Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, pointed out that that basically means that 9/11 is an unsolved crime. For example, he argued, how much store would we put in it if the Pakistani government announced that it had solved the Bhutto assassination by getting confessions through torture. Or if it was announced that the Kennedy assassination was solved because someone had confessed under torture of doing the assassination.
Then the next day the New York times and other corporate media start to feature stories about the military tribunals that are supposedly going to fix the blame for 9/11.
How dumb do they think we are?
What an absurd notion ……. Hurling a grenade that killed a US soldier in time of military conflict is a “war crime”? What utter nonsense. Is everybody who participates on the other side of the conflict and kills an American a “war criminal”……. but those Americans who torture prisoners, and those who cold bloodedly murder and entire family inside their own home are NOT criminals…… or at least are acquitted. This is deeply embarrassing to me as an American….. unspeakably shameful. There is no justification whatsoever for this kind of double standard. It can only breed contempt and hatred around the world.
Howard
stepfour: Who are the dissidents? People that speak negatively about the Bush regime now, or are they the people who will speak negatively against the Democrat regime after the election? Maybe they are people who speak out against corruption in government. The people for corruption surely won’t be negatively judged by any politican I know!
Isn’t it beautiful. They don’t have to tell us anything about the proceeding because they are ’secret’. If they have any real evidence I would like to see it.
People within our own government did 9/11. These guys are just unfortunate patsy’s. Offered up as sacrifices to lend legitimacy to an imperial war of resource stealing.