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NYT: Pentagon Tried to 'Fix' Military Tribunals

From Monday's New York Times:

As the Pentagon was making its final preparations to begin war crimes trials against four detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, two senior prosecutors complained in confidential messages last year that the trial system had been secretly arranged to improve the chance of conviction and to deprive defendants of material that could prove their innocence.

Defense lawyers, both within the military and private counsel, have been complaining all along about the unfairness of the tribunals. Now that prosecutors have made the same claim, maybe someone will listen. But who, when Bush and the executive branch keep stealing more and more power from the Courts and Congress?

Update: Australian detainee David Hick's lawyer says he's not surprised.

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    Re: NYT: Pentagon Tried to 'Fix' Military Tribunal (none / 0) (#1)
    by john horse on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:48 PM EST
    So now we know why the Bush administration asked Congress to ease visa restrictions on Australian lawyers. After all, they are familiar with "kangaroo" courts.

    This is something new? Anybody who's been arrested and gone to trial, on just about anything, will tell you the couts are rigged for the prosecution.

    Re: NYT: Pentagon Tried to 'Fix' Military Tribunal (none / 0) (#3)
    by Repack Rider on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:48 PM EST
    Anybody who's been arrested and gone to trial, on just about anything, will tell you the couts are rigged for the prosecution. What seems to be new about this is that the PROSECUTORS are doing the complaining. When the beneficiaries of the corrupt policy complain, you have hit new levels of of corruption.

    Re: NYT: Pentagon Tried to 'Fix' Military Tribunal (none / 0) (#4)
    by roger on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:48 PM EST
    Difference is, JAG officers work for the defense as well as the persecution. Every so often, they switch. This does seem to keep them more intellectually honest. We might want to try something like this with civilians.

    Re: NYT: Pentagon Tried to 'Fix' Military Tribunal (none / 0) (#5)
    by scarshapedstar on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:48 PM EST
    Pearyb, the difference is that the public knows when there's a crooked trial in a normal criminal court. In a tribunal, the accused has already disappeared from the face of the earth, more than likely never to be seen again. This leaves little to hold back the more, um, Stalinist tendencies in certain people.

    Re: NYT: Pentagon Tried to 'Fix' Military Tribunal (none / 0) (#6)
    by cpinva on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:49 PM EST
    now, now, not so fast boys and girls. in that same article, the guy in charge of those prosecutions said he had investigated the claims made by the (now departed) lawyers, and found them totally lacking in substance. besides which, they dressed badly. i would be shocked, shocked, to discover that the gentleman was being anything less than totally transparent and forthcoming, and that those tribunals were not being conducted with the most scrupulous attention paid to the defendent's rights, and the highest evidentiary standards being met. shocked i tell you! by the way, just put my winnings in the car.

    Re: NYT: Pentagon Tried to 'Fix' Military Tribunal (none / 0) (#7)
    by desertswine on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:49 PM EST
    Military justice is to justice what military music is to music. -Groucho Marx-