Guantanamo defense calls for charges to be dropped

[struggle4progress]

The convening authority said this week that some of the men facing trial were tortured. Dropping all charges 'is the legally and morally correct course,' the defense writes in a letter.
By Carol J. Williams
January 17, 2009

All charges against Guantanamo prisoners should be dropped in light of the admission by the top war-crimes tribunal official that some of the 22 men facing trial were tortured, the tribunal's defense chief said Friday.

The letter to Convening Authority Susan J. Crawford urged her to clear the controversial court's slate before the Tuesday inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama, who has vowed to shut Guantanamo as one of his first actions.

Withdrawal of the charges "is the legally and morally correct course," the defense team leader, Air Force Col. Peter R. Masciola, wrote to Crawford ...

Crawford told the Washington Post this week that she refused to authorize prosecution of alleged "20th hijacker" Mohammed Qahtani, the Saudi suspected of plotting with the Sept. 11 attackers, because "his treatment met the legal definition of torture" ...

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/middleeast/la-na-guantanamo-torture17-2009jan17,0,3335277.story