The more we find out about what happens at Guantanamo Bay, the more the whole thing seems like a waste of time, at best, and a terrible injustice, at worst. For verifications of both takes, we need only turn to an op-ed by a former Gitmo lawyer, Morris D. Davis, for the Los Angeles Times:
I was the chief prosecutor for the military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, until Oct. 4, the day I concluded that full, fair and open trials were not possible under the current system. I resigned on that day because I felt that the system had become deeply politicized and that I could no longer do my job effectively or responsibly.
In my view -- and I think most lawyers would agree -- it is absolutely critical to the legitimacy of the military commissions that they be conducted in an atmosphere of honesty and impartiality. Yet the political appointee known as the "convening authority" -- a title with no counterpart in civilian courts -- was not living up to that obligation.
That "convening authority" being Susan Crawford, chosen by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to replace Maj. Gen. John Altenburg. This convening authority, created by the Military Commissions act, participates in military tribunals as sort of a one person grand jury -- among other things -- who "chooses who serves on the jury, decides whether to approve requests for experts and reassesses findings of guilt and sentences, among other things." In this capacity, the CA is supposed to be impartial. Crawford, apparently and not very surprisingly, has not been...
[CLICK TO READ FULL POST]
