The Bush administration’s war crimes system “is designed to get criminal convictions” with “no real evidence,” Commander Kuebler says. Or he lets fly that military prosecutors “launder evidence derived from torture.”
“You put the whole package together and it stinks,” he said in an interview.
This from a conservative born-again Christian who has never voted for a Democrat. But respect for the Constitution transcends political parties ... at least, it should.
Kuebler is following the time honored defense strategy of irritating the prosecutors by calling attention to their unjust antics.
But the irritation strategy seems to be driving the prosecutors to distraction.
Cool. That's what it's supposed to do.
The defense lawyers face criticism for delaying the show-trials the Bush administration would like to hold, but they deserve credit for insisting on real trials with real protections for the accused.
If there is a trial, he said, he expects Mr. Khadr to be convicted. “I don’t believe it is a fair process,” Commander Kuebler said.
More examples of military defense lawyers doing their job:
Lt. Col. Yvonne Bradley, an Air Force reservist from Pennsylvania, was once nearly sent to the brig when she angered a military judge by asserting that legal ethics barred her from participating in the proceedings.
Commander Mizer, the fourth-generation military man in his family, challenged a Pentagon general by filing a successful claim that the general had exerted unlawful influence over the commissions.
After Major Mori made seven trips to Australia on behalf of the detainee David Hicks, an Australian Qaeda trainee, the chief military prosecutor at the time suggested that the major could be prosecuted for using “contemptuous words” against American leaders.
In Australia, Major Mori had told audiences that Guantánamo commissions were “kangaroo courts” and that Mr. Hicks was “like a monkey in a cage.” In 2007, after Australia’s prime minister at the time, John Howard, came under pressure over the case, the United States government reached a plea deal. Mr. Hicks was soon released. Major Mori was not prosecuted, and is now serving in Iraq.
