"Pentagon Sets Rules for Detainee Trials" convictions and executions now allowed with hearsay and

[in_cog_ni_to]

and coerced testimony! Lovely. Just lovely.


Pentagon Sets Rules for Detainee Trials
By ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon's rules for upcoming detainee trials would allow terrorism suspects to be convicted and perhaps executed using hearsay evidence and some coerced testimony.

The rules are fair, said the Pentagon, which released them Thursday in a manual for the expected trials. However, they could spark a fresh confrontation between the Bush administration and the Democratic-led Congress over treatment of terror suspects.

According to the 238-page manual, a detainee's lawyer could not reveal classified evidence in the person's defense until the government had a chance to review it. Suspects would be allowed to view summaries of classified evidence, not the material itself.

The new regulations are intended to track a law passed last fall by Congress restoring President Bush's plans to have special military commissions try terror-war prisoners. Those commissions had been struck down earlier in the year by the Supreme Court.<snip>

http://www.comcast.net/news/politics/index.jsp?cat=POLITICS&fn=/2007/01/18/565356.html