Example Set by First Military Tribunal Case Has U.S. Wary

[Jeffersons Ghost]

Example Set by First Military Tribunal Case Has U.S. Wary
By CHARLIE SAVAGE


WASHINGTON — After working for a year to redeem the international reputation of military commissions, Obama administration officials are alarmed by the first case to go to trial under revamped rules: the prosecution of a former child soldier whom an American interrogator implicitly threatened with gang rape.

The defendant, Omar Khadr, was 15 when he was captured in Afghanistan and accused of throwing a grenade that killed an American soldier. Senior officials say his trial is undermining their broader effort to showcase reforms that they say have made military commissions fair and just.

“Optically, this has been a terrible case to begin the commissions with,” said Matthew Waxman, who was the Pentagon’s top detainee affairs official during the Bush administration. “There is a great deal of international skepticism and hostility toward military commissions, and this is a very tough case with which to push back against that skepticism and hostility.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/28/us/28gitmo.html?_r=1&ref=global-home

[ixion]

1. Surprise, surprise: a military tribunal is a kangroo court

who could have foreseen...? :eyes: