Lawyer: Rumsfeld "messed up" Guantanamo trials

[deminks]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060407/ts_nm/security_guantanamo_dc

By Jane Sutton
2 hours, 25 minutes ago

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his appointees set rules that violate President George W. Bush's order to hold fair trials for prisoners charged with terrorism in the Guantanamo tribunals, a military defense lawyer said on Friday.

"We can't help it that the secretary of defense and his delegees (sic) have messed this thing up, but they have," military lawyer Army Maj. Tom Fleener told the presiding officer at one of the hearings.

Tribunal rules set by the Pentagon require the defendants to have U.S. military lawyers who are authorized to see secret evidence that the accused may not be allowed to view. Pentagon officials have refused defense requests to allow self-representation, which Fleener called a fundamental right in nearly every court on Earth.

Military defense lawyers and human rights groups have called the tribunals fundamentally unfair and stacked to ensure convictions. The U.S. Supreme Court heard a challenge to their legitimacy last month and is expected to rule by the end of June on whether the trials can proceed.

[GodlessBiker]

1. If the USSC upholds these trials, history will judge them like it does

the WWII Japanese internment case.

[Gman]

2. Early morning odds on if the SCOTUS rules against the DOJ

are that DOD will ignore the SCOTUS decision. That would flow with the imperial presidency theory that these Nazi's put forth.

[donco6]

3. Isn't that the same tactic McCarthy used?

Secret evidence that the accused isn't allowed to view?

Have they no shame?

[peacebird]

4. "Have they no shame?" in a word - NO.

[AlamoDemoc]

5. Rumsfeld is torturrer and war criminal...he deserves the same

treatment his victims received under his directive in Abu-Ghraib

[lovuian]

6. The tribunal are just for show... to say look they had a trial

but not given the basic rights make it a joke...