SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Guantanamo Watchers: Obama Getting Away With Policies Bush Wouldn't Have
Death penalty expert: “There is nothing about this system that the average American... would see as being fair”
Apr 17, 2012
Guantanamo observers say the public has stopped paying attention to the military tribunals for detainees at Guantanamo, and if the policies for the tribunals had been enacted by George W. Bush rather than President Obama, Americans would be outraged.
Bryan Broyles, the Pentagon's deputy chief defense counsel at Guantanamo, told TPM that one aspect that should have Americans furious is allowing death penalty defendants to plead guilty yet still receive the death penalty. Broyles notes that this means the trials are "set up to give someone what appears to be a fair trial with a predetermined result."
Richard Kammen, a death penalty expert representing accused USS Cole attack plotter Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, told TPM there were "huge, huge problems" in the military commissions system.
* * *
TPMMuckraker: Guantanamo Lawyers: Obama Gets Away With Legal Moves Bush Wouldn't Have
More than two years after President Barack Obama blew his self-imposed deadline to shut down the extrajudicial prison at Guantanamo Bay, close observers and defense lawyers with clients making their way through the reformed military tribunal system say the public isn't paying attention.
"I think what you'll find is the interest in the process will never get back up again," Bryan Broyles, the Pentagon's deputy chief defense counsel at Guantanamo, told TPM. "It's fatigue and the thought that 'Well, it must be okay now because Obama said it's okay.'"
Broyles and other observers believe that some policy changes instituted under the Obama administration would have sparked outrage if President George W. Bush was still in the White House. One change he said should have been "extremely alarming" to the legal community: the rule allowing death penalty defendants to plead guilty and still receive the death penalty. [...]
[Richard Kammen, a death penalty expert representing accused USS Cole attack plotter Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri] called the reforms instituted by the Obama administration in 2009 "quite superficial" and said there are "huge, huge problems" in the military commissions system.
"There is nothing about this system that the average American, if they were caught up in it, would see as being fair," Kammen said. "The Republicans have an interest in keeping this process going and the Democrats have an interest, to a certain extent, in not embarrassing Obama."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Guantanamo observers say the public has stopped paying attention to the military tribunals for detainees at Guantanamo, and if the policies for the tribunals had been enacted by George W. Bush rather than President Obama, Americans would be outraged.
Bryan Broyles, the Pentagon's deputy chief defense counsel at Guantanamo, told TPM that one aspect that should have Americans furious is allowing death penalty defendants to plead guilty yet still receive the death penalty. Broyles notes that this means the trials are "set up to give someone what appears to be a fair trial with a predetermined result."
Richard Kammen, a death penalty expert representing accused USS Cole attack plotter Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, told TPM there were "huge, huge problems" in the military commissions system.
* * *
TPMMuckraker: Guantanamo Lawyers: Obama Gets Away With Legal Moves Bush Wouldn't Have
More than two years after President Barack Obama blew his self-imposed deadline to shut down the extrajudicial prison at Guantanamo Bay, close observers and defense lawyers with clients making their way through the reformed military tribunal system say the public isn't paying attention.
"I think what you'll find is the interest in the process will never get back up again," Bryan Broyles, the Pentagon's deputy chief defense counsel at Guantanamo, told TPM. "It's fatigue and the thought that 'Well, it must be okay now because Obama said it's okay.'"
Broyles and other observers believe that some policy changes instituted under the Obama administration would have sparked outrage if President George W. Bush was still in the White House. One change he said should have been "extremely alarming" to the legal community: the rule allowing death penalty defendants to plead guilty and still receive the death penalty. [...]
[Richard Kammen, a death penalty expert representing accused USS Cole attack plotter Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri] called the reforms instituted by the Obama administration in 2009 "quite superficial" and said there are "huge, huge problems" in the military commissions system.
"There is nothing about this system that the average American, if they were caught up in it, would see as being fair," Kammen said. "The Republicans have an interest in keeping this process going and the Democrats have an interest, to a certain extent, in not embarrassing Obama."
Guantanamo observers say the public has stopped paying attention to the military tribunals for detainees at Guantanamo, and if the policies for the tribunals had been enacted by George W. Bush rather than President Obama, Americans would be outraged.
Bryan Broyles, the Pentagon's deputy chief defense counsel at Guantanamo, told TPM that one aspect that should have Americans furious is allowing death penalty defendants to plead guilty yet still receive the death penalty. Broyles notes that this means the trials are "set up to give someone what appears to be a fair trial with a predetermined result."
Richard Kammen, a death penalty expert representing accused USS Cole attack plotter Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, told TPM there were "huge, huge problems" in the military commissions system.
* * *
TPMMuckraker: Guantanamo Lawyers: Obama Gets Away With Legal Moves Bush Wouldn't Have
More than two years after President Barack Obama blew his self-imposed deadline to shut down the extrajudicial prison at Guantanamo Bay, close observers and defense lawyers with clients making their way through the reformed military tribunal system say the public isn't paying attention.
"I think what you'll find is the interest in the process will never get back up again," Bryan Broyles, the Pentagon's deputy chief defense counsel at Guantanamo, told TPM. "It's fatigue and the thought that 'Well, it must be okay now because Obama said it's okay.'"
Broyles and other observers believe that some policy changes instituted under the Obama administration would have sparked outrage if President George W. Bush was still in the White House. One change he said should have been "extremely alarming" to the legal community: the rule allowing death penalty defendants to plead guilty and still receive the death penalty. [...]
[Richard Kammen, a death penalty expert representing accused USS Cole attack plotter Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri] called the reforms instituted by the Obama administration in 2009 "quite superficial" and said there are "huge, huge problems" in the military commissions system.
"There is nothing about this system that the average American, if they were caught up in it, would see as being fair," Kammen said. "The Republicans have an interest in keeping this process going and the Democrats have an interest, to a certain extent, in not embarrassing Obama."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.