Gitmo Judge Bucks WH Bid to Stall Trial

[unhappycamper]

Gitmo Judge Bucks WH Bid to Stall Trial
January 30, 2009
Miami Herald

The chief of the Guantanamo war court Thursday spurned President Barack Obama's request to freeze the military commissions trying war-on-terror captives, and said he would hold a hearing next month for an alleged USS Cole bomber in a capital terror case.

The development meant that only withdrawal of the charges could stop Abd el Rahim al-Nashiri's Feb. 9 arraignment. A Pentagon source said late Thursday that could happen within days.

Col. James Pohl, an Army judge, wrote in a three-page decision that the war court structure set up by Congress in 2006 left him no choice but to move ahead with al-Nashiri's case.

The Saudi Arabian is accused of orchestrating the October 2000 al-Qaida suicide bombing off Yemen that killed 17 American sailors, a crime for which the Pentagon war crimes prosecutor seeks military execution.

"The Commission is bound by the law as it currently exists not as it may change in the future," Pohl wrote in a three-page ruling.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/gitmo-judge-bucks-wh-bid-to-stall-trial.html