Judge critical of Gitmo trials is dismissed.»

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/31/judge-critical-of-gitmo-trials-is-dismissed/

Judge critical of Gitmo trials is dismissed.»

Army Col. Peter Brownback III, a judge who was hearing a war crimes case at Guantanamo Bay and “publicly expressed frustration with military prosecutors’ refusal to give evidence to the defense,” has been dismissed. Brownback had threatened to suspend the proceedings against Omar Khadr “unless prosecutors handed over Khadr’s medical and interrogation records since his July 2002 capture in Afghanistan.” Pentagon prosecutors have also rushed to schedule high-profile detainee trials during the height of the presidential campaign season.

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9/11 trial sought during presidential campaign

By CAROL ROSENBERG
ASSOCIATED PRESS


Defense lawyers for the alleged 9/11 conspirators on Thursday accused the Pentagon prosecutor of rushing to begin the complex Sept. 11, 2001, mass-murder trial in the height of the presidential campaign season.

The U.S. military attorneys included the claim in a 20-page brief asking the military judge to dismiss the capital charges against alleged al Qaeda kingpin Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other Guantánamo detainees.

The document includes an e-mail from a civilian member of the prosecution team proposing to set the trial date for Sept. 15, the Monday after the seventh anniversary of the suicide attacks.

''Not coincidentally,'' the defense attorneys say, ``that would force the trial of this case in mid-September, some seven weeks before the general elections.''

The date, in fact, is 10 days after Sen. John McCain, an architect of Military Commissions law, is expected to be officially nominated as the Republican presidential candidate at the GOP national convention in St. Paul, Minn.

more...

http://www.miamiherald.com/guantanamo/story/551287.html

[BunkerHill24]

1. K&R

[gratuitous]

2. Hard to run a kangaroo court with human beings sitting on the bench

Seeya, Judge Brownback. We can't be having "due process" or "rights against self-incrimination" or any of that fancy legal folderol. We're interested in convictions.

Ah, these military tribunals will convince the world just how much the United States respects human rights and its own Constitution. And the military is chock full of promotion-hungry assholes who will sell the country and its principles down the river for another ribbon on their chest.

[DCKit]

3. Bravo!!! Boy oh boy, did you knock that one out of the park.

Do they really think it's in anyone's best interest to be so damn ham-handed and transparent in hijacking everything the U.S. is supposed to stand for?

[ShadowLiberal]

4. You mean we STILL haven't convicted the 9/11 terrorists?!?

6 and a half years certainly doesn't sound like a 'speedy trial' to me.

But yeah it's disgusting to see them try to hold back the case until around election time for political gain. What are they going to do, try to 'coincidentally' come back with a guilty verdict just a few days before the election?

[Disturbed]

5. So called "Evidence" elicited by Torture is bogus & Illegal.

The Military & the Busholini Regime have shamed America & have lost
credibility around the World.