They Still Don't Get It
Even after the third rebuke from the US Supreme Court, the current administration is bound and determined to continue with the show trials in Guantanamo Bay, and to do so under the clearly unconstitutional mode it has decided will ensure convictions. According to this article in the Washington Post, the government still refuses to allow the defendants to review the evidence being used against them and to confront the CIA agents who extracted confessions via torture.
Though the top legal adviser for the commissions process, Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas W. Hartmann, has said that the trials would be "fair, just and transparent" and that detainees would have full access to the evidence against them, Pentagon officials have now backed off of those claims. The Office of Military Commissions said last week that defendants representing themselves might not get access to information about their interrogators and that secret information might have to be redacted in order to be shared with them.
"If classified information is presented to the jury, the accused will see it, no exceptions," according to the Office of Military Commissions' written responses to Washington Post questions about how the military commissions will deal with classified evidence in the Sept. 11 case. But a further explanation reveals that classified contents of certain materials could be replaced by summaries and blacked-out documents. "It is possible that an accused representing himself will not be able to directly review some evidence; in such circumstances, his standby defense counsel might be involved." [Emphasis added]
In other words, the defendants who have insisted on representing themselves rather than rely on the military lawyers picked by the Pentagon, will be provided with sheets of paper in which the only words they can see will be "and," "but," "however."
Nor will the defendants be allowed to confront their interrogators on the crucial issue of how some evidence was obtained.
The defendants, some of whom have already said they were tortured by CIA agents while held in secret prisons overseas, almost certainly will request to use highly classified evidence relating to their captures and alleged confessions under duress. Legal experts said that, in such cases, it would be critical to challenge the confessions as illegal because of coercion, even if the government did not seek to use them, because of the legal doctrine that if the defendant was abused, all of his following statements would then be tainted and inadmissible. [Emphasis added]
The names of the interrogators are classified, the methods they used are classified, even the locations of the interrogations are classified. Since it is highly unlikely that the defendants in these cases have the appropriate security clearance, they will not have access to the information which might very well result in the dismissal of charges because the government will be unable to prove up the charges.
The government has decided that keeping the ghastly information secret is more important than giving the defendants a fair trial, which isn't surprising. To release that information would be to admit that the government itself violated international law. To release that information would also thwart the plan to "try 'em and then hang 'em," which, after all, is the whole point of the Military Commissions Act.
This isn't justice. It's pure crap dressed up pretending to be justice.
Shameful.
Though the top legal adviser for the commissions process, Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas W. Hartmann, has said that the trials would be "fair, just and transparent" and that detainees would have full access to the evidence against them, Pentagon officials have now backed off of those claims. The Office of Military Commissions said last week that defendants representing themselves might not get access to information about their interrogators and that secret information might have to be redacted in order to be shared with them.
"If classified information is presented to the jury, the accused will see it, no exceptions," according to the Office of Military Commissions' written responses to Washington Post questions about how the military commissions will deal with classified evidence in the Sept. 11 case. But a further explanation reveals that classified contents of certain materials could be replaced by summaries and blacked-out documents. "It is possible that an accused representing himself will not be able to directly review some evidence; in such circumstances, his standby defense counsel might be involved." [Emphasis added]
In other words, the defendants who have insisted on representing themselves rather than rely on the military lawyers picked by the Pentagon, will be provided with sheets of paper in which the only words they can see will be "and," "but," "however."
Nor will the defendants be allowed to confront their interrogators on the crucial issue of how some evidence was obtained.
The defendants, some of whom have already said they were tortured by CIA agents while held in secret prisons overseas, almost certainly will request to use highly classified evidence relating to their captures and alleged confessions under duress. Legal experts said that, in such cases, it would be critical to challenge the confessions as illegal because of coercion, even if the government did not seek to use them, because of the legal doctrine that if the defendant was abused, all of his following statements would then be tainted and inadmissible. [Emphasis added]
The names of the interrogators are classified, the methods they used are classified, even the locations of the interrogations are classified. Since it is highly unlikely that the defendants in these cases have the appropriate security clearance, they will not have access to the information which might very well result in the dismissal of charges because the government will be unable to prove up the charges.
The government has decided that keeping the ghastly information secret is more important than giving the defendants a fair trial, which isn't surprising. To release that information would be to admit that the government itself violated international law. To release that information would also thwart the plan to "try 'em and then hang 'em," which, after all, is the whole point of the Military Commissions Act.
This isn't justice. It's pure crap dressed up pretending to be justice.
Shameful.
Labels: Guantanamo Bay, Justice
posted by Diane at 4:36 AM
1 Comments:
Yes, it is shameful.
I don't care if the defendant in question is Osama bin Laden himself. If he is being tried by an American court, he is entitled to American justice. And that means that he is entitled to due process, which includes being able to confront the witnesses against him.
This is such basic stuff that it's absolutely horrifying that we have to defend it. It's like trying to defend the notion that one and one is two.
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