August 2, 2005 /

Rigged Trials at Gitmo

We continue to hear stories of torture from Guantanimo Bay. The administration continues to denounce the claims. They do admit to some “extreme” interrogation tactics that result in good intelligence however. The big question is; If the intelligence is so good then why must we “rig” the trials? Leaked emails from two former military prosecutors […]

We continue to hear stories of torture from Guantanimo Bay.
The administration continues to denounce the claims. They do admit to some
“extreme” interrogation tactics that result in good intelligence however.

The big question is; If the intelligence is so good then
why must we “rig” the trials?

Leaked emails from two former military prosecutors said
that the hearings were in fact being rigged because of the lack of evidence the
military has. A month prior to being transferred out of Gitmo, Major Robert
Preston, who was one of the prosecutors, concluded an email with:

After all, writing a motion saying that the process will
be full and fair when you don’t really believe it is kind of hard,
particularly when you want to call yourself an officer and lawyer.

Another prosecutor, Captain John Carr who ended up leaving
the post also wrote:

When I volunteered to assist with this process and was
assigned to this office, I expected there would at least be a minimal effort
to establish a fair process and diligently prepare cases against significant
accused, Instead, I find a half-hearted and disorganised effort by a skeleton
group of relatively inexperienced attorneys to prosecute fairly low-level
accused in a process that appears to be rigged.

Capt Carr also said further in the email that:

You have repeatedly said to the office that the military
panel will be handpicked and will not acquit these detainees and that we only
needed to worry about building a record for the review panel.

The most ironic part of this story is that these
Prosecutors would have guaranteed wins. Instead they felt moral and ethical
beliefs took precedent and should not fall to a guaranteed conviction.

Now we are getting a better look at how the military is
willing to twist justice in order to promote the war on terror. Reading of this
makes you start to wonder if we truly have any terrorists in custody or if the
war on terror is not another larger scale version of “wagging the dog”.

ABC news
Australia has the full article regarding the emails.

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