CSPAN3 Rights of Detainees in Guantanamo live now 10am ET

[maddezmom]

Rights of Detainees
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) chairs a hearing on the legal rights of Guantanamo detainees. This Senate Judiciary Subcmte. hearing considers what those rights are and whether they should be changed. On Dec. 5, the Supreme Court heard two cases regarding
a detainee's right to appear in federal court.
http://www.c-span.org/watch/cs_cspan3_wm.asp?Cat=TV&Code=CS3

[maddezmom]

1. Col. Davis Guantanamo Testimony Is Blocked

Guantanamo Testimony Is Blocked
By JESS BRAVIN
December 8, 2007; Page A4

WASHINGTON -- A military prosecutor said the Bush administration blocked him from testifying before a congressional committee examining the treatment of Guantanamo Bay detainees -- the second such incident.


Air Force Col. Morris Davis was slated to testify next week that recent policy changes had left the military-commission system, set up to prosecute Guantanamo prisoners for war crimes, open to improper political influence, including possible pressure to use information obtained through waterboarding.

Col. Davis planned to say that he considered information obtained through the interrogation technique, which simulates drowning, unreliable and that he had ordered his staff to exclude such evidence from their cases. But other government officials disagreed about waterboarding and other issues, Col. Davis said in a draft of testimony reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Col. Davis said he was told Thursday night that the Defense Department wouldn't permit him to appear before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security. Col. Davis was chief Guantanamo prosecutor from 2005 until October, when he resigned in protest.

more:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119708332783518094.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

[maddezmom]

2. AWOL military justice by Col. Morris Davis

Why the former chief prosecutor for the Office of Military Commissions resigned his post.
By Morris D. Davis
December 10, 2007
Iwas the chief prosecutor for the military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, until Oct. 4, the day I concluded that full, fair and open trials were not possible under the current system. I resigned on that day because I felt that the system had become deeply politicized and that I could no longer do my job effectively or responsibly.

In my view -- and I think most lawyers would agree -- it is absolutely critical to the legitimacy of the military commissions that they be conducted in an atmosphere of honesty and impartiality. Yet the political appointee known as the "convening authority" -- a title with no counterpart in civilian courts -- was not living up to that obligation.

In a nutshell, the convening authority is supposed to be objective -- not predisposed for the prosecution or defense -- and gets to make important decisions at various stages in the process. The convening authority decides which charges filed by the prosecution go to trial and which are dismissed, chooses who serves on the jury, decides whether to approve requests for experts and reassesses findings of guilt and sentences, among other things.

Earlier this year, Susan Crawford was appointed by the secretary of Defense to replace Maj. Gen. John Altenburg as the convening authority. Altenburg's staff had kept its distance from the prosecution to preserve its impartiality. Crawford, on the other hand, had her staff assessing evidence before the filing of charges, directing the prosecution's pretrial preparation of cases (which began while I was on medical leave), drafting charges against those who were accused and assigning prosecutors to cases, among other things.

more:http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-davis10dec10,0,2446661.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail

[maddezmom]

3. Lawyers Assert That Pentagon Overstates Ex-Detainee Threat

Lawyers Assert That Pentagon Overstates Ex-Detainee Threat

By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 11, 2007; Page A11

A Seton Hall law professor contends that the Defense Department has overestimated the number of former Guantanamo Bay detainees who became involved in terrorist activities after they were released from the military prison.

Bush administration officials have long said that numerous former Guantanamo detainees have turned up on battlefields or have become involved in unspecified "anti-coalition militant activities." Defense officials put the number at 30 in a news release in July.


The Pentagon cited seven former detainees by name, saying they turned up on battlefields after leaving the prison, and it said there are 23 others who became involved in unspecified terrorist activity but did not name them.

In material they will deliver to a congressional committee today, however, Mark P. Denbeaux and his son, Joshua, who represent Guantanamo detainees, said the data lack specificity and include some former detainees who did nothing more than speak out publicly about their captivity.

more:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/10/AR2007121001616.html?nav=rss_nation

[maddezmom]

4. Hartmann won't answer if evidence from waterboarding is being used in any of the cases

[maddezmom]

5. won't answer if answers obtained from waterboarding iare reliable

so I guess he admits it's being done at Gitmo

[madokie]

6. debra burlingame is a nut, geeeze

why even bring her to this hearing

[maddezmom]

7. obviously she a witness for the repubs

http://hotair.com/archives/2007/12/11/debra-burlingame-testifies-about-terrorists-lawyers-and-guantanamo-today/