Ex-Prosecutor Calls War Tribunals Tainted
GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA - The former chief prosecutor for the Guantanamo war crimes tribunals testified Monday that the tribunals were tainted by political influence and by evidence obtained through prisoner abuse.
Air Force Col. Morris D. Davis, who quit the war court last year, said political appointees and higher-ranking officers pushed prosecutors to file charges before trial rules were even written.
A supposedly impartial legal advisor demanded they pursue cases where the defendant “had blood on his hands” because those would excite the public more than mundane cases against document forgers and Al Qaeda facilitators, Davis said.
He said the pressure rose after “high-value” prisoners allegedly connected to the Sept. 11 plot were moved to Guantanamo from secret CIA custody shortly before the 2006 congressional election.
“There was that consistent theme that if we didn’t get this thing rolling before the election, it was going to implode,” Davis testified in the courtroom at the Guantanamo naval base in Cuba. “Once you got the victim families energized and the cases rolling, whoever won the White House would have difficulty stopping the proceeding.”
Davis testified in a pretrial hearing for Osama bin Laden’s driver, Yemeni prisoner Salim Ahmed Hamdan.
Defense lawyers asked the judge to throw out the charges on grounds that the tribunal process was too tainted to provide him a fair trial.
They summoned Davis — who himself filed the charges against Hamdan — to bolster their case.
When questioned by the new chief prosecutor, Army Col. Lawrence Morris, Davis said he thought the charges against Hamdan were ethical and valid.
Davis has said publicly that he remains convinced Hamdan is guilty of conspiring with Al Qaeda.
“It was an extraordinary spectacle to see the former chief prosecutor testifying as the defense’s star witness,” said Ben Wizner of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Hamdan is the prisoner whose lawsuit prompted the Supreme Court to strike down as illegal the initial Guantanamo war crimes system in 2006.
The charges against him were twice dismissed and then refiled, and the military hoped to begin his trial in late May.
Hamdan faces life in prison if convicted of conspiring with Al Qaeda and of providing material support for terrorism.
He has said he never joined Al Qaeda, had no advance knowledge of its attacks, and took a job as Bin Laden’s driver only because he needed the $200 monthly salary for his family.
Prosecutors said that he was a trusted Al Qaeda member who helped Bin Laden escape U.S. forces in Afghanistan and that he had two anti- aircraft rockets in his car when he was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001.
Three other prosecutors quit the Guantanamo court in 2004 and said they thought the process was rigged to convict.
© 2008 Reuters
Surprise, surprise ! NOT!
Since the CIA funded and armed the original al Qaeda, isn’t this selective prosecution?
I don’t believe anything our government says. I would believe anyone before I would trust them.
Can we use the same system to try Bush, et al.?
why the censorship? My post was relevant, the evidence as credible as anything else posted on this site.
Oh, I said Israel. Well, the neocons have dual-citizenship, PNAC wrote the war plan, the 9/11 was the ‘new Pearl Harbor’ and the statement of Senator Dayton, and Secretary Minetta, and the BBC5 documentary are all great things in and of themselves. And if Ralph Schoenman is too much, then you better check out his radio archives from WBAI.
You know better, don’t you?
Your censorship took out my time consuming links and it was bullshit of you.
And that does it for me in posting here. And I will not even visit your site. For what else are you covering up and I know for whom now. I would love to debate you about Israeli genocide in Palestine, and know why CD does not come up in searches for key information, but you did put up a resource I sent you years ago: The Israel-Palestinian Crisis, hope you still have it.
Bill
notgoingalong,
I’m curious about what it was that you had posted and which you say was deleted. And what’s the BBC5 documentary?
————————–
Referring to the article:
“Prosecutors said that he was a trusted Al Qaeda member who helped Bin Laden escape U.S. forces in Afghanistan and that he had two anti- aircraft rockets in his car when he was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001.”
I appreciate Hamdan’s defense argument, believing it’s surely credible, and that being a driver for Bin Ladin is no worse than what can be said of driving Bush, Cheney, and many others; and this applies with respect to Hamdan having helped Al Qa’ida members flee from Afghanistan.
But, and actually to begin with, since it’s the beginning of the official GWoT, as for Osama Bin Ladin being guilty for the 9-11 attacks, I have not seen any articles stating that this has been proven about him. He at first denied involvement, which I read some years ago senior counter-terrorism experts said was very odd if OBL was indeed guilty, for terrorists act on political or socio-economic (in)justice terms and therefore usually, if not always, declare that they’re responsible; when they are. Later, in I believe Nov. 2001, OBL reversed his claim, now saying he was responsible, or one of the highly responsible anyway; and I don’t know if it was this video, or one a little later, but whichever it is, Bush, Cheney, … claimed it was OBL speaking and it was definitely NOT him. That’s happened a number of times with video messages from people Bush, … claimed to be OBL; and that’s “odd”, say. After all, the U.S. govt most definitely knows very well what he looks like. The U.S. govt was LYING about these videos really being OBL, for it only was very early on; never since.
We don’t need to be experts in order to be able to realise the above; we only need to compare pictures of the real OBL with the characters pretending to be him in all of the evidently fake OBL videos that the U.S. govt either may well have, or else certainly did play a role in fabricating. I think ‘certainly’ is the case, but not being God, I’ll accept the possibility that maybe the fabrication was not something the U.S. govt was involved in; only it was, for it always pretended that non-OBLs were him when the U.S. govt knows damn well that it was lying, knowing damn well it was not him.
And as for Hamdan having been found with two air defence rockets or launchers there-for in his car, so what?! He had as much right to air defence as the USA does.
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gde,
It’s definitely selective prosecution; as well as hypocrisy and hegemony, “complemented” with a LOT of LIES from the Bush, Cheney, … lot of fiends.
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Lastly, it’s uplifting to learn or else be reminded of the prosecturs who quit in 2004 and for the reason that they did; in addition to Mr Davis quitting in 2007. If I had once learned of the 2004 withdrawals, then it’s been long enough forgotten; not having read more than maybe one or two articles about this some years back.
How long will it take us to realize the simplest thing: From 911 on, the neocons have done everything possible to obfuscate and confuse…
Theyhave MADE SURE they can’t convict those patsies who have been manufactured to cover the real crime, which is plain to see …..
As the “perpetrators” are paraded out into the kangaroo courts, their defense will trot out the torture data, thereby completely undermining all the cases …WHICH WAS THE PURPOSE ALL ALONG. And let the next administration deal with THE LIES ON TOP OF LIES. Will OBAMA OR CLINTON and the other puppets in Congress actually ever deal with the rogue secret agencies organizing this? NO, because it is obvious that the people pulling the strings are nasty characters and won’t bend to anyone’s reason or plea…..Maybe they will someday simply grab their millions and go to the hell they deserve….
It would appear as if Dubya, Cheney, & Co.’s veering the US military to show trials that even Stalin would laugh at has hit a snag: a former staffer who actually believes in rule of law and due process that has a shred of fairness. Unfortunately for the White House gang, the ghosts of Roland Freisler & Wilhelm Stuckart are not available.
Khadr’s only hope for a fair trial is in Canada: lawyer
Canadian Omar Khadr will likely be convicted of murder by a U.S. military tribunal even though there’s no hard evidence he committed the crime, his U.S. lawyer told a parliamentary committee Tuesday. …
“There is almost no real evidence to support the proposition that Omar actually threw a hand grenade in July 2002 that killed a U.S. soldier,” Kuebler told the committee.
“Omar will probably nonetheless be convicted of murder by the military commission for little more than having survived the firefight.”
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/04/29/khadr-kuebler.html
Don’t blame son for father’s sins: Khadr lawyer
Omar Khadr’s lawyer made a forceful plea before a federal subcommittee Tuesday, asking Ottawa to help get his Canadian client out of a U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
U.S. navy Lt.-Cmdr. William Kuebler was the first witness to appear before hearings this week by a human rights subcommittee looking into the Khadr case. Kuebler told committee members that the media and the American military have told largely fictitious lies about Khadr, who he says has been portrayed unjustly as a dangerous terrorist.
“The Omar Khadr they describe does not exist,” said Kuebler.
“He is not one of our enemies in the war on terror, he is a fellow victim of those enemies.” …
“The son should not go on being punished for the sins of the father,” Kuebler said.
“Omar Khadr did not choose to go into combat … Like other child soldiers he was put there.”
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080429/khadr_lawyer_AM_080429/20080429/
If anyone knows how to get this video (right of article) on youtube, I would be grateful.
notgoingalong - it was probably an automatic program that deleted you. Any post that has more than (usually) two or (sometimes) three links tends to get automatically deleted (meaning you have to use more than one post). Also be careful to make small changes if the post is very similar to something that you have previously posted on common dreams - it deletes “duplicates” even if they appear under different articles weeks apart.
RE: - Three other prosecutors quit the Guantanamo court in 2004 and said they thought the process was rigged to convict.
Seems that this is true not just of Hamdan - but that there is concern that other stories we have heard about the prisoners facing trial is consistently more fiction than fact.
Some Residential schools were like prisons:
Stolen Children
Personal devastation and a culture nearly destroyed. Such is the legacy of residential schools. Can a Truth and Reconciliation Commission start the healing?
http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/video/aboriginal_issues/stolen_children.html
notgoingalong,
I am also very curious about potential censorship here on CD. As long as the comments weren’t threatening, overtly defamatory or otherwise completely off the wall, I would find it very troubling that CD would withdraw a comment. If you are still reading, please spare the time for other readers to understand this issue. Short of repeating your time-consuming (I believe it) post, could you give us some circumspect on the gist of your deleted post?
CD would have a very big, very ugly problem on its hands if it were deemed by the readership as biased. I believe this is a very serious issue.
vaudree,
Thanks for the clarification on the behaviour profile of CD robots. I find that helpful. I still hope notgoingalong can respond, however!
If you see him/her around, repeat the message. When it used to happen to me, I would get frustrated and not come back for a few days. Also, if I put anything up ever that is good, pass it on.
If anyone is interested cpac.ca is like your C-Span and you can watch this on Omar Khadr online:
Wednesday, April 30 at 12:55PM ET / 9:55AM PT
Subcommittee on International Human Rights of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development
Members convened on April 29 to discuss Omar Khadr’s case with Lieutenant-Commander William C. Kuebler from the Office of Military Commissions, U.S. Department of Defense, and Rebecca Snyder. Kuebler is Khadr’s U.S. military lawyer, while Snyder is Khadr’s civilian lawyer. Khadr is a Canadian citizen currently being detained at a U.S. military facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He was 15 years old when he was arrested and charged with killing an American soldier in Afghanistan in 2002.
There is little difference in the fairness of these kangaroo trials than everything else this administration does. It is a scheme to convict. One of the prosecutors who quit was concerned about what might happen if some of the prisoners was aquitted. He said he was told “WE CAN’T HAVE AQUITALS.”
Common Dreams’ friends and activist,
This post is germane to the commentary, as it relates to the dynamic that apparently exist between us, and I wanted to put this clarification on the record, and judiciously offer my apology if I jumped to an unjust conclusion. - Bill
Mike Corbeil
Vaudree
Thewonderingyou
I just reviewed all my post on CD by typing in my username and Common Dreams on Google and bingo! I was wondering if any controversy resulted by stomping-off in a huff after having my post that was “under moderation” eliminated to use a less offensive word.
In reviewing that post, Vaudree made an astute point, that the problem could have been automatically generated and therefore, not a willful individual action, in keeping with a behind the boards understanding of parameters on content.
In reviewing my post, I aside the one above, was the one I admittedly smacked Tom Hayden with, but we go back, and he is a politician who is conflicted between his activist conscience and his pragmatic “realist” other self.
This post is clarify and give thanks to the those who cared enough to express themselves and hoped I would continue to post. I have raw nerves on being censored, it is a chronic condition, for I feel it is part of my calling to bring up what I feel is urgently missing in the dialogue, and on key points break the silence, even in auditoriums from the rafters!
Oh, Mike to answer your question of the BBC5 link:
http://www.surfingtheapocalypse.tv/bbc5.php