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Guantanamo trials top priority
09/06/2008 09:02 - (SA)
Miami - The Pentagon has declared the
Guantanamo war crimes trials a national priority and will more
than double the number of military lawyers assigned to them,
even as critics say the government is rushing because it wants
to influence the November US presidential elections.
Air Force Brig Gen Thomas Hartmann, legal adviser to the
Pentagon appointee overseeing the trials, told journalists
visiting Guantanamo that about 108 uniformed military lawyers
would be added to the prosecution and defence teams in the next
three months.
The two teams currently each have 19 military lawyers and
nine military paralegals, he said. Each side will get 20 to 25
more uniformed lawyers and 20 to 25 more paralegals, and the
defence will also get more than a dozen analysts.
"Very recently and consistently with past practice the
Department of Defence has made the determination that providing
fair, just and transparent trials in these commissions is the
No 1 obligation for legal services in the Department of
Defence," Hartmann said.
The announcement came hours before last Thursday's
arraignment of five accused al-Qaeda prisoners who could be
executed if convicted of plotting the September 11 attacks.
Pressed for details on the timing, Hartmann said, "I don't
know that it always wasn't the No 1 priority but I know that
it was formally declared the No 1 priority in the last two or
three weeks" by Deputy Defence Secretary Gordon England.
Prosecutors and especially defence lawyers have complained
for years about a lack of manpower and resources in the widely
criticised Guantanamo legal system created by the Bush
administration to try suspected al-Qaeda operatives outside the
regular civilian and military courts.
More than six years after the United States began sending
captives to the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba, not one case
has gone to trial. One was resolved when Australian captive
David Hicks pleaded guilty to providing material support for
terrorism in a deal that averted trial and limited his sentence
to nine months in prison.
Nineteen cases are now pending, including some that have
been delayed repeatedly amid challenges to the legality of the
Guantanamo court.
'Political meddling'
A former chief prosecutor, who quit in October because of
what he characterised as meddling by political appointees,
complained that prosecutors were being pushed to get the
accused September 11 plotters' cases moving before the November
US presidential election.
Prosecutors want to start those trials in September, and a
judge rejected defence lawyers' pleas to delay Thursday's
arraignment until they had had more time to meet with the
defendants. One military lawyer was only granted a security
clearance to speak to his client the night before the hearing.
Defence lawyers called it "shameful" that they were not
allowed more time to prepare, and human rights observers also
questioned the sudden rush.
"All of these men have been in US custody for more than
five years," said Joanne Mariner, terrorism and
counterterrorism director at Human Rights Watch. "That the
government has chosen this particular moment to initiate their
prosecutions sets off alarm bells."
The Supreme Court is expected to decide this month whether
the Guantanamo prisoners have the right to go before US
federal judges to challenge their years-long detention.
At issue is a law that President George W Bush pushed
through the Republican-led Congress in 2006 that took away the
habeas corpus rights of the terrorism suspects to seek judicial
review of their imprisonment.
The cases before the court do not address broader questions
such as the legality of the Guantanamo court system or whether
the prison should be closed. But the presidential candidates of
both major US parties have said they would shut it down.
- Reuters
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