U.S. Military Rehearses Terror Hearings (AP)

[Eugene]

U.S. Military Rehearses Terror Hearings

By MICHAEL MELIA
The Associated Press
Sunday, December 17, 2006; 4:45 PM

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba -- The U.S. military is rehearsing for hearings
on whether 14 top terror suspects can be held indefinitely without charge as enemy
combatants, but defense lawyers say the outcome is preordained.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, and the 13 others
will be the highest-profile detainees to undergo the so-called Combatant Status Review
Tribunals, and the first to do so in two years. The proceedings, expected early next
year, are open to the media.

-snip-

The rehearsals are being conducted inside the same space reserved for the hearings _
a small room inside a trailer equipped with a few leather chairs, one plastic seat for
the detainee, and little else.

-snip-

Defense attorneys have condemned the hearings as shams because classified evidence
is withheld from the detainees and they are not afforded defense lawyers.

"There is no question that these 14 have no chance," said Brent Mickum, an attorney
who represents two Britons at Guantanamo. "The decision has (already) been made that
they are enemy combatants."

-snip-

Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/17/AR2006121700462.html

[ixion]

1. if they are enemy combatants, then they have rights under the Geneva Conventions

as much as our fasisct chickenhawks wished they didn't. :grr:

[bullimiami]

2. all we need is the video of the judges rehearsing the guilty verdicts.