GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba, June 4, 2007
Charges Against Gitmo Detainees Thrown Out
Judges At Guantanamo Dismiss Two Cases In A Reversal For Bush Administration
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Military personnel transport an unidentified detainee into a building within the grounds of the maximum security prison at Camp Delta 2 & 3, at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba. (AP Photo)
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In back-to-back arraignments for Salim Ahmed Hamdan of Yemen and Canadian Omar Khadr the U.S. military's cases against the alleged al Qaeda figures dissolved because, the two judges said, the government had failed to establish jurisdiction.
They were the only two of the roughly 380 prisoners at Guantanamo charged with crimes, and the rulings stand to complicate efforts by the United States to try other suspected al Qaeda and Taliban figures in military courts.
Hamdan's military judge, Navy Capt. Keith Allred, said the detainee is "not subject to this commission" under legislation passed by Congress and signed by President Bush last year. Hamdan is accused of chauffeuring bin Laden's and being the al Qaeda chief's bodyguard.
Defense attorneys argued that the new Military Commissions Act, written to establish military trials after the U.S. Supreme Court last year rejected the previous system, is full of problems.
The judges agreed that there was one problem they could not resolve — the new legislation says only "unlawful enemy combatants" can be tried by the military trials, known as commissions. But Khadr and Hamdan had previously been identified by military panels only as enemy combatants, lacking the critical "unlawful" designation.
"Just when you think the logjam at Guantanamo Bay is going to dissipate, something else goes wrong," CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen said. "This is truly an unbelievable turnaround and it's almost inconceivable that the lawyers and politicians who drafted the Military Commissions law last year would have left this loophole available."
The surprise decisions do not spell freedom for the detainees, who are imprisoned here along with about 380 other men suspected of links to al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Khadr was 15 when he was captured after a firefight in Afghanistan in 2002 in which he allegedly killed a U.S. soldier and was wounded himself. He is now 20.
Khadr, appearing in the courtroom with a beard and wearing an olive-green prison uniform, seemed uninterested when the judge, Army Col. Peter Brownback, threw out the case. Khadr focused on his own image on a computer screen that showed a live TV broadcast of the proceedings.
The chief of military defense attorneys at Guantanamo Bay, Marine Col. Dwight Sullivan, said the dismissal of the case against Khadr could spell the end of the war-crimes trial system hurriedly set up last year by Congress and Bush after the Supreme Court threw out the previous system.
But legal experts said Brownback apparently left open the door for a retrial for Khadr, and that the Defense Department can possibly fix the jurisdictional problem by holding new "combat status review tribunals" for any detainee headed to trial.
Sullivan said the dismissal has "huge" impact because none of the detainees held at this isolated military base in southeast Cuba has been found to be an "unlawful" enemy combatant.
"It is not just a technicality; it's the latest demonstration that this newest system just does not work," Sullivan told journalists. "It is a system of justice that does not comport with American values."
The Military Commissions Act specifically says that only those classified as "unlawful" enemy combatants can face war trials here, Brownback noted.
The distinction is important because if they were "lawful," they would be entitled to prisoner of war status, which under the Geneva Conventions would entitle them to the same treatment under established military law that U.S. soldiers would get.
A Pentagon spokesman said the issue was little more than semantics.
Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon told The Associated Press said the entire Guantanamo system was set up to deal with people who act as "unlawful enemy combatants," operating outside any internationally recognized military, without uniforms, military ranks or other things that make them party to the Geneva Conventions.
"It is our belief that the concept was implicit that all the Guantanamo detainees who were designated as 'enemy combatants' ... were in fact unlawful," Gordon said.
Sullivan said that reclassifying detainees as "unlawful," will require a time-consuming overhaul of the whole system. But Gregory McNeal, a law professor at Pennsylvania State University, said nothing prevents the Defense Department from reconvening hearings for detainees headed to trial and declaring them to be "unlawful" combatants.
Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, said a retrial is possible because Brownback dismissed the case without prejudice.
Prosecuting attorneys in both cases indicated they would appeal the dismissals. But the court designated to hear the appeals — known as the court of military commissions review — doesn't even exist yet, Sullivan noted.
At the Khadr family home in Toronto, Khadr's sister Zaynab said she hoped the ruling would lead to his release.
"It seems like good news. I guess someone is starting to actually look at the charges and at him as a person rather than just the fact he's allegedly the enemy of the United States," the 27-year-old said in a telephone interview.
U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, said he plans to hold hearings on the Military Commissions Act, which he said is "riddled with problems and created a process that operates outside the rule of law — it has crippled our ability to deal with the real criminals still being held at Guantanamo."
The only other detainee charged under the new system, Australian David Hicks, pleaded guilty in March to providing material support to al Qaeda and is serving a nine-month sentence in Australia. Sullivan said the dismissal of the Khadr case raised questions about the legitimacy of Hicks' conviction.
Brownback ruled only minutes into Khadr's arraignment on charges of murder in violation of the law of war, attempted murder in violation of the law of war, conspiracy, providing material support for terrorism and spying.
"The charges are dismissed without prejudice," Brownback pronounced.
A prosecutor, Army Capt. Keith Petty, said he had been prepared to show Khadr was an unlawful combatant because he fought for al Qaeda, and videotapes showed Khadr making and planting explosives targeting American soldiers.
The U.S. military has hoped to accelerate its prosecutions of Guantanamo detainees, with the Pentagon saying it expects to eventually charge about 80 of the 380 prisoners held at this isolated base. Now, delays seem likely.
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hamdan last June when it threw out the previous military tribunal system, set up in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Congress quickly responded with new guidelines for war-crimes trials that Bush signed into law.
Hamdan was charged with conspiracy for his alleged membership in al Qaeda, his purported role in plotting to attack civilians and civilian targets, and material support for terrorism — he is accused of transporting at least one SA-7 surface-to-air missile to shoot down U.S. and coalition military aircraft in Afghanistan in November 2001.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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See all 49 CommentsSuch competence as demonstrated by Bush's WOT should make us all proud, eh?
Most of these detainees have been at Gitmo for four to five years and charges have only been brought against two of them? And the two who have been charged had them tossed?
If it weren't so said, it'd be hilarious.
Such competence as demonstrated by Bush's WOT should make us all proud, eh?
Most of these detainees have been at Gitmo for four to five years and charges have only been brought against two of them? And the two who have been charged had them tossed?
If it weren't so said, it'd be hilarious.
True - but the real joke (sad joke) is in this Nation's White House, ruining the country.
What we should have done years ago is to give the prisoners a fair hearing immediately, close the place down, those who have been held to be a danger to the USA could be transferred to the mainland and those found innocent sent back to their families with just compensation.
Like pre-emptive war, like politizing the Justice Department, like rendition, like torture;
everything this neocon idiot president has done, does not jive with American values -
wrong, wrong, and wrong again -
and by the way, don't forget who has to pay the bill America -
So what should you as ordinary citizen do to help fight this grave and mortal danger? Well, nothing. Just continue about your daily life, go on shopping and consuming, especially for one of those great big SUVs. We need to show those Middle-Easterners that we're rich enough to continue to buy their oil even if they hate us, and willing to pay through the roof for it, too. Oh, and don't forget to get one of those cute "Support our Troops" magnets. Come to think of it, get two or three. There's plenty of room in the back of your great big SUV, and our troops in Iraq really appreciate that. Thank you for your support.
So what should you as ordinary citizen do to help fight this grave and mortal danger? Well, nothing. Just continue about your daily life, go on shopping and consuming, especially for one of those great big SUVs. We need to show those Middle-Easterners that we're rich enough to continue to buy their oil even if they hate us, and willing to pay through the roof for it, too. Oh, and don't forget to get one of those cute "Support our Troops" magnets. Come to think of it, get two or three. There's plenty of room in the of your great big SUV, and our troops in Iraq really appreciate that. Thank you for your support.
So what should you as ordinary citizen do to help fight this grave and mortal danger? Well, nothing. Just continue about your daily life, go on shopping and consuming, especially for one of those great big SUVs. We need to show those Middle-Easterners that we're rich enough to continue to buy their oil even if they hate us, and willing to pay through the roof for it, too. Oh, and don't forget to get one of those cute "Support our Troops" magnets. Come to think of it, get two or three. There's plenty of room in the of your great big SUV, and our troops in Iraq really appreciate that. Thank you for your support.
So defending your own land and neighborhood from an invasion by hostile forces requires a uniform in order to be "lawful"? Mr. Gordon is the one twisting semantics here...
Kidnapping, detaining, and torturing innocent civilians (by law presumed innocent until proven otherwise) makes the US the leader of the real "unlawful enemy combatants...
For these reasons and more, it is likely that many will die by "suicide", "accident" or "prisoner-on-prisoner violence, as those guilty of authorizing the crimes will make sure such prisoners never see daylight again. Others will be threatened with various ugly scenarios if they talk about their experiences, witness the Australian recently sent home, amazingly quiet bloke.
Yet others will simply have any processing of their cases delayed for years, until they too die in prison for no reasoin other than Bush's enrichment, and the pleasure of sadistic prison staff...
Thomas Paine, Dissertation on First Principles of Government, December 23, 1791
"The Grecians and Romans were strongly possessed of the spirit of liberty but not the principle, for at the time they were determined not to be slaves themselves, they employed their power to enslave the rest of mankind."
Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, No. 5, March 21, 1778
"It should be the highest ambition of every American to extend his views beyond himself, and to bear in mind that his conduct will not only affect himself, his country, and his immediate posterity; but that its influence may be co-extensive with the world, and stamp political happiness or misery on ages yet unborn."
George Washington, letter to the Legislature of Pennsylvania, September 5, 1789
"It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great Nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a People always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence."
George Washington, Farewell Address, September 19, 1796
"We have become the enemy we fought."
SearingTruth
A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com
Thomas Paine, Dissertation on First Principles of Government, December 23, 1791
"The Grecians and Romans were strongly possessed of the spirit of liberty but not the principle, for at the time they were determined not to be slaves themselves, they employed their power to enslave the rest of mankind."
Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, No. 5, March 21, 1778
"It should be the highest ambition of every American to extend his views beyond himself, and to bear in mind that his conduct will not only affect himself, his country, and his immediate posterity; but that its influence may be co-extensive with the world, and stamp political happiness or misery on ages yet unborn."
George Washington, letter to the Legislature of Pennsylvania, September 5, 1789
"It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great Nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a People always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence."
George Washington, Farewell Address, September 19, 1796
"We have become the enemy we fought."
SearingTruth
A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com
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