The military lawyer appointed to represent Australian David Hicks at Guantanamo slams the tribunal rules and says they don't allow for a fair trial.

Maj. Michael Mori, who in November was assigned to be the military attorney for David Hicks -- an Australian held at the U.S. military prison in Cuba -- said the system set up by the Pentagon for trials of non-U.S. citizens captured during what U.S. officials call the war on terror was unfair.

"The military commissions will not provide a full and fair trial," Mori told a news conference. "The commission process has been created and controlled by those with a vested interest only in convictions.... Using the commission process just creates an unfair system that threatens to convict the innocent and provides the guilty a justifiable complaint as to their convictions."

Among the problems with the tribunal rules are these:

... the Pentagon can monitor communications between prisoners and their lawyers, and there is no independent judicial review process. Appeals go only to a special military review panel named by the Pentagon, to the secretary of defense or the president.

Mori said the most "striking injustice" of the system was that commission members, who take the place of an independent judge, do not have the authority to decide issues that could end up in the dismissal of a charge. ... There is no valid reason to create a new justice system only for non-U.S. citizens," he said.

The limitations on defense counsel contained in the tribunal rules --and the denial of due process, attorney-client confidentiality and privilege -- make it impossible for lawyers to provide adequate or ethical representation. By requiring lawyers to agree to the tribunal rules, the lawyer has to contract away his or her client’s rights, including the right to zealous advocacy.