Pentagon Bars Anti-Torture Marine from Testifying

[Hissyspit]

Source: Wall Street Journal

Pentagon Bars Anti-Torture Marine From Testifying
By Spencer Ackerman - November 8, 2007, 11:04AM

There's an empty chair at Malcolm Nance's hearing before a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee on torture this morning. That chair was supposed to be occupied by Marine Lt. Colonel Stuart Couch. Earlier this year, Couch, a then a prosecutor, refused to bring charges against a 9/11-linked detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Mohamedou Ould Slahi, after determining that the basis for the charges -- Slahi's confession -- were yielded by torture, as the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year.

The subcommittee wanted to hear about Couch's experiences. But the Pentagon refused to let him testify. The Journal:

Asked last week to appear before the panel, Col. Couch says he informed his superiors and that none had any objection. Yesterday, however, he was advised by email that the Pentagon general counsel, William J. Haynes II, "has determined that as a sitting judge and former prosecutor, it is improper for you to testify about matters still pending in the military court system, and you are not to appear before the Committee to testify tomorrow." Mr. Haynes is a Bush appointee who has overseen the legal aspects of the Pentagon's detention and interrogation policies since Sept. 11, 2001. The email was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Read more: http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004667.php

[redqueen]

1. Improper?

How is it improper?

What a load of bull.

[gorbal]

2. This is why we can't vote for anyone remotely resembling a Republican

They are either halfway off the deep end of sanity or coddling people who are.

[underpants]

3. Former interrogator: Ban Waterboarding

Source: AP/Yahoo

WASHINGTON - A former interrogation instructor for the Navy said the words Thursday that congressional Democrats wanted to hear from Attorney General-designate Michael Mukasey: "Waterboarding is torture, period."

A third witness who had agreed to testify said the Pentagon prohibited him from appearing.

Marine Lt. Col. Stuart Couch, appellate judge of the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals, said he was willing to testify when permitted to do so by the Department of Defense.

In a March 31 Wall Street Journal story, Couch said he had refused to prosecute a suspected terrorist because he believed the evidence had been tainted by torture.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071108/ap_on_go_co/congres... ;_ylt=AglaQPO9QA6njX.HKfQl5P9vzwcF

[SlingBlade]

4. Right Wing Neo-Con

On our local forum, Actually thier leader say's

"Can you establish that waterboarding was indeed used (we still talking about waterboarding right?), and that president knew about it at the time he made that statement?"

[underpants]

5. It is implied that waterboarding was used with KSM

and the other "important" detainees but it isn't actually stated. Notice the language that is used.

This whole thing is yet another case (like the warrantless wiretapping, DOJ firings) where they got flat out caught with their hands in the cookie jar and no number of internal memos is going to give them cover.

[SlingBlade]

8. Yea, its always the same.

They always seem to have a door that they can use in order to not get pinned on any of this stuff.

By the way underpants, I want to thank you for all the great articles you post.

[The Stranger]

6. Haynes needs to be arrested on suspicion of committing war crimes.

And held in contempt until the requested testimony is provided.

[hootinholler]

7. Rec this up! n/t

[gratuitous]

9. Is this the group you want to be associated with, Mr. Nance?

Resign your commission, sir. You are no longer part of something good or noble. You're in a gang of thugs, and if you stay with them even while protesting their thuggish methods, you are, at the end of the day, no different. Choose carefully, Mr. Nance. Can you shake off the propaganda of fake heroism and do something truly heroic?

Not many can.

[sutz12]

10. I love living in bizarro world...

where we can believe the intel gathered through torture, but we can't believe it when it is said that we torture.