Guantánamo Tribunal Process in Turmoil

[UpInArms]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/26/politics/26gitmo.html?pagewanted=all&position=

WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 - Although the first full war crimes trial before a military tribunal at Guantánamo is not scheduled to begin until December, officials acknowledge that the process is in turmoil and say there will be substantial changes made in coming weeks to restore credibility.

The officials said problems that surfaced at the military commission's opening hearings this summer provided new ammunition for domestic and foreign critics at the same time the process is facing legal challenges both inside the military and in federal court. The changes are likely to include altering the membership of the commission panel and improving a translation system that has proved inadequate.

The deputy chief judge of the Air Force, who is one of the defense lawyers, filed a motion this week urging the government to drop the process altogether and begin all over again using the military's venerable court-martial procedures. The judge, Lt. Col. Sharon Shaffer, who is defending a Guantánamo prisoner charged with serving as a principal accountant for Al Qaeda, said in her motion that the military commission which convened for the first time in August was an archaic system dating to World War II and had flaws that could not be fixed.

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Under questioning in a hearing, Colonel Brownback stated flatly that he had never told a group of lawyers that the detainees had any speedy trial rights, a statement that could have demonstrated he did not have an open mind on the issue. When he was then told by a Navy lawyer that an audio recording of such a meeting existed, he was stunned and said he had not been aware the meeting was being taped.

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