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| 5/23 |
| 2008/4/4-9 [Politics/Domestic/911, Politics/Domestic/SIG] UID:49669 Activity:nil |
4/4 ACLU: Defending American's Enemies
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/32758.html
\_ Why not ask the ACLU about it?
http://aclu.org/safefree/detention/johnadams.html |
| 5/23 |
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| www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/32758.html close tool goes here The American Civil Liberties Union, which for years has scorned Pentagon military commissions as "kangaroo courts,'' announced Friday that it will try to provide top civilian defense attorneys for alleged terrorists facing trial at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- including the alleged mastermind of the Sept. Under the military commissions scheme, the Pentagon won't reimburse volunteer civilian attorneys for their expenses. ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said a major thrust of the effort will be to defend Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who military officials say has confessed to masterminding the 9-11 attacks and several other terrorist acts, including the beheading in Pakistan of Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl. The ACLU chose to focus on Mohammed's defense, Romero said, because he appears to be "the government's top priority in the prosecution. Waterboarding is simulated drowning and is considered torture by many rights advocates. Mohammed's case "is likely to raise the most significant issues of torture, hearsay evidence and access to counsel,'' Romero said. At the Pentagon, a war court spokesman said the Office of Military Commissions hadn't received details about the ACLU program. Andre Kok noted that the law governing the trials entitles each Guantanamo defendant to a military defense lawyer and that volunteer civilian attorneys can also participate, without government reimbursement. Because the prisoners have been cast by the White House as the most reviled enemies of America, the ACLU and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers issued endorsements of the effort from high-profile lawyers, including one from Reno, who served as President Clinton's attorney general for both of his terms and is the longest-serving attorney general in US history. Steve David, who is the commissions' chief defense counsel, has been trying to build teams of military attorneys qualified to handle the complicated death penalty cases from the mostly inexperienced military judge advocates general assigned to his office. David, an Indiana judge in civilian life, has said that he wants to meet American Bar Association standards in the cases -- meaning assigning 12 government lawyers, six investigators and six paralegals. At the same time, the defense JAGs have been attending ABA death-penalty training classes. Thomas Hartmann, has said that the military commissions are not obliged to follow ABA standards. Among those who've volunteered to defend the 9-11 conspirators are Idaho attorney David Nevin, whose previous cases include the successful defense of a Saudi charged with terrorism; New York attorney Joshua Dratel, who defended clients charged with the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center prosecutions; and Denise LeBoeuf, a prominent New Orleans death penalty defense attorney. Romero said a noted death-penalty lawyer has agreed to defend Mohammed before the military commission -- if he's allowed to see Mohammed in private at the remote Guantanamo US naval base and Mohammed agrees to accept his services. Romero declined to name the attorney, but said that the lawyer had already applied for the high-level security clearance required to meet with Mohammed, who is held in seclusion at the base. "The only way you can protect the system from being a complete sham is to make sure that they have a good defense,'' said Jennifer Daskal of Human Rights Watch, who also has been a commission observer. |
| aclu.org/safefree/detention/johnadams.html John Adams Project: Standing Up for Justice In The Military Commissions Proceedings "It is when the stakes are the highest and when tempers run the hottest that we must work doubly hard to keep a check on our government and prevent it from trading in our values for visceral and political motives ... It is during the most challenging situations that our country's values are most intensely tested... Hamdan v Rumsfeld, the Supreme Court ruled that the original military commission system established by President Bush to try detainees at Guantnamo Bay was unlawful because it had not been authorized by Congress. Military Commissions Act (MCA), legitimizing a system of military tribunals that fails to meet minimum due process standards. At the same time, the MCA stripped Guantnamo detainees of their right to habeas corpus, thus limiting their ability to challenge the legality of any conviction or sentence resulting from the military commission proceedings. The legislation also provides retroactive immunity to government officials who authorized torture and abuse, and permits convictions based on coerced evidence obtained through torture. The ACLU and NACDL have consistently and vehemently condemned the grave flaws of the Military Commissions Act, so far to no avail. Now, we are confronted with an egregious situation, the upcoming prosecution of several detainees under the procedures established by the Military Commissions Act. The ACLU and NACDL are assembling defense teams to be available to assist in the representation of detainees facing prosecution at Guantnamo. We are taking this step because of our grave concerns that the Guantanamo military commissions process does not reflect our country's commitment to justice and due process. The military commissions' authorization of the use of coerced evidence possibly derived from torture, secret evidence, and hearsay is unconstitutional and counter to American traditions of fairness and justice. |