Will GITMO SYSTEM IMPLODE?
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(Sun, 11 May 2008 14:48:09 -0500 (CDT)) ---
Saturday, May 10, 2008
TOP PENTAGON LEGAL ADVISER DISQUALIFIED FROM GUANTANAMO TRIAL: NYT
[JURIST] A US military judge has ruled that US Air Force Reserve Brig.
Gen. Thomas Hartmann [<>], a
top Pentagon legal adviser on the Guantanamo military commission trials,
is ineligible to participate in the first military commission trial of a
detainee because he is too closely associated with the prosecution, the
New York Times reported Saturday. The Times said it had a copy of the
decision by Navy Capt. Keith Allred, although it had not been publicly
released. The paper quoted Allred as concluding that "National attention
focused on this dispute has seriously called into question the legal
adviser's ability to continue to perform his duties in a neutral and
objective manner". Hartmann is legal adviser to Susan J. Crawford, the
Convening Authority
[<>]
for the military commissions.
Earlier this year former Guantanamo prosecutor Air Force Col. Morris D.
Davis [<>] made
headlines when he said in the wake of his resignation that Hartmann had
questioned the need for open trials
[<>]
at Guantanamo and was upset with the slow pace of the proceedings begun by
Davis. In a subsequent Los Angeles Times op-ed
[
Hartman said that the slow progress that frustrated Davis was an
unavoidable part of a careful judicial process and rejected Davis'
allegations that aspects of the military commissions were being
intentionally hidden from the public. Last month, Davis testified at a
pre-trial hearing for Guantanamo detainee Salim Hamdan that Hartmann had
pressured him
[<>
to move forward with military commissions quickly "before the election"
or else "this thing's going to implode."
############
<>
Judge Drops General From Trial of Detainee
By WILLIAM GLABERSON NYT -- Published: May 10, 2008
In a new blow to the Bush administration's troubled military commission
system, a military judge has disqualified a Pentagon general who has been
centrally involved in overseeing Guantanamo war crimes tribunals from any
role in the first case headed for trial.
The judge said the general was too closely aligned with the prosecution,
raising questions about whether he could carry out his role with the
required neutrality and objectivity.
Military defense lawyers said that although the ruling was limited to one
case, they expected the issue to be raised in other cases, potentially
delaying prosecutions, including the death-penalty prosecution of six
detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for the Sept. 11 attacks.
Critics of the military commission system said Friday that the judge's
decision would provide new grounds to attack the system that they say was
set up to win convictions.
The judge, Capt. Keith J. Allred of the Navy, directed that Brig. Gen.
Thomas W. Hartmann of the Air Force Reserve, a senior Pentagon official
of the Office of Military Commissions, which runs the war crimes system,
have no further role in the first prosecution, scheduled for trial this
month.
General Hartmann, whose title is legal adviser, has been at the center of
a bitter dispute involving the former chief Guantanamo military
prosecutor, Col. Morris D. Davis of the Air Force.
Colonel Davis has said the general interfered in the work of the military
prosecution office, pushed for closed-door proceedings and pressed to rely
on evidence obtained through techniques that critics call torture.
"National attention focused on this dispute has seriously called into
question the legal adviser's ability to continue to perform his duties in
a neutral and objective manner," the judge wrote on Friday, in a copy of
the decision not released publicly but obtained by The New York Times.
Decisions by Guantanamo judges are not typically released publicly until
days after being handed down.
Cmdr. Jeffrey D. Gordon of the Navy, a Pentagon spokesman, declined to
comment on the ruling, saying senior Defense Department officials were
reviewing it.
Reached at his office shortly after the decision was distributed inside
the Pentagon, General Hartmann said he could not talk. His spokeswoman did
not respond to requests for comment.
General Hartmann, who has been a controversial figure since his
appointment last summer, is the legal adviser to the Pentagon official
with broad powers over the war crimes system, Susan J. Crawford. She has
the military title of Convening Authority of the Guantanamo war crimes
cases.
Ms. Crawford has never made a public statement in her role.
General Hartmann has been the military official most publicly identified
with prosecutions in recent months. It was he, for example, who announced
the Sept. 11 charges and has publicly pressed prosecutors to move faster.
Ruling on a defense lawyers' request that said General Hartmann had
exerted unlawful influence over the prosecution, Judge Allred said that
public concern about the fairness of the cases was "deeply disturbing"
and that he could not find that the general "retains the required
independence from the prosecution."
Pentagon officials could ask the judge to reconsider, could appeal to a
special military appeals court created to hear Guantanamo cases or could
replace General Hartmann.
General Hartmann has denied Colonel Davis's assertions and said the
commission system would "follow the rule of law." He has also said he has
pressed prosecutors and others involved in the tribunals to move the cases
more quickly.
As convening authority, Ms. Crawford has powers over the entire war crimes
system, including the power to approve or reject charges, to reach plea
deals and to provide financial resources to the prosecution and the
defense.
Among officials in the war crimes system, General Hartmann was assumed to
have been acting on her behalf. But the judge did not find there was
evidence suggesting she should be removed even from the single case.
Judge Allred's ruling followed a hearing in Guantanamo on April 28 at
which Colonel Davis said General Hartmann pressured him in deciding what
cases to prosecute and what evidence to use. The judge called the hearing
after lawyers for a detainee, Salim Hamdan, said his charges were
unlawfully influenced.
MichaelP (papadop@peak.org).
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