Gitmo Tribunals: Al-Qaeda Defenders on the Move as Judge Knocks a Surreptitious Censor
The week of Guantanamo hearings for a quintet of al-Qaeda suspects accused in the 9/11 attacks concluded with an emergency motion to suspend proceedings amid questions of who’s listening into defense conversations.
Professed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his alleged co-conspirators — Walid bin Attash, Ramzi bin al Shibh, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, and Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi — only showed up in court one day this week, with Mohammed sporting a flame-orange beard and, unlike previous appearances, having little to say.
But the focal points of the courtroom this week weren’t these notorious men facing the death penalty in the murder of 2,976 on U.S. soil. It was the civilian defense attorneys and an unseen person with a finger on the censor button who created the headlines.
On Monday, the audio feed of the courtroom proceedings — both observers at Gitmo and in the satellite viewing room are partitioned off in case classified information is discussed in open court — cut out for about a minute at the discretion of the “original classification authority,” without involvement from the commission or the court security officer.
Judge James Pohl reviewed the OCA’s reason for cutting the feed and ruled there was no justification to keep the information discussed from the public. The chopped portion consisted of one of Mohammed’s lawyers moving to request that secret CIA black sites where his client was interrogated be kept intact to preserve any evidence.
“This is the last time that an OCA or any other third party will be permitted to unilaterally decide if the broadcast should be suspended,” Pohl said Thursday. “The OCA, any OCA does not work for the commission and therefore has no independent decision-making authority on how these proceedings are to be conducted.” That anonymous censor, of course, is suspected to be the CIA.
“The court security officer works for the commission. He is trained in identifying classified materials and is authorized to initiate the temporary suspension of the broadcast of the proceedings if, in his judgment, such action is necessary. He then will consult with the judge. The judge and only the judge will then decide on the appropriate action,” continued Pohl, who was visibly irritated by the censoring.
“Accordingly, I order the government to disconnect any ability for any third party to suspend the broadcast of these proceedings and also no third party to unilaterally suspend the broadcast of these proceedings.”
Fresh off a day of lobbying for 48-hour visits to understand their clients’ surroundings better, Mohammed’s lead defense counsel filed an emergency motion “to abate the proceedings and to not take further action in the case until we get to the bottom of not only the question of who’s, what the capabilities are for listening in, who is listening on communications at counsel table, both with respect to communications with our client and communications among counsel and between counsel, but also in other settings here at Guantanamo Bay, and specifically referring to the locations where we meet with our client.”
Attorney David Nevin said that concern extended to off-the-record conversations in the courtroom when parties weren’t addressing the court.
“My request is that we just put the proceedings on hold until we get to the bottom of this question,” he said. “…That is why we characterized it as an emergency, because we realized if we can’t go forward, we can’t go forward.”
Given the nature of the motion, Pohl told Nevin that the defendants who made clear there’s no motivating factor to come to court will have to be in the courtroom when the next week of pretrial hearings opens on Feb. 11.
The media viewing areas, both at Guantanamo Bay and the satellite location at Fort Meade, Md., are actually a mix of reporters and observers for human-rights groups that have been critical both with the long detention of the terrorists and the enhanced interrogation techniques used on the accused.
As 9/11 families gather at Gitmo and other viewing rooms at a handful of bases for each plodding step forward in the proceedings, opponents of the tribunal process decry the hearings as show trials that won’t see the al-Qaeda operatives freed even if acquitted.
Just remember – Democrats and liberals think of Tea Party members and conservatives as terrorists. It’s not just hyperbole when they use such language, they honestly, truly believe it. And once they feel secure enough they are likely going to act on it.
Publisher of Blagojevich book under fire.
Chicago Review Press: Do they ignore the facts?
http://illinoispaytoplay.com/2013/02/02/chicago-review-press-do-they-ignore-the-facts/
We’ve captured these scumbags – er “Detainees” while they were conducting war on the USA. The “Detainees” call it Jihad (Holy War) and we call it a “War on Terorrism.”
Seeing how prisoners of war are kept locked up until the end of said war, we should keep them locked up until Jihad is no loner waged on the USA or its allies. No lawyers, no tribunals, and no releasing until the ending of hostilities. According to fatwas againts us, that should be about 1,000,000 years from now.
The real problem is that there are no ongoing declared wars. Dude, when were all the last times the US declared war in accordance with our Constitution? I’ll answer this question for you…we declared war in 1812, the Mexican-American War in 1846, the Spanish-American War in 1898, WWI in 1917, and WWII in 1941. What war are you talking about? Do you believe that some unconstitutional war conducted by some scumbag president who ignores our Constitution counts? If so, I consider you an enemy of our Republic and an enemy of our Constitution!
Dude,
Do your homework.
Over the past decade, the federal courts, with the Supreme Court in the lead, have answered many of the Authorized Use of Military Force’s (AUMF) unanswered problems. Thus, the courts have now established that the AUMF does authorize detention, including of U.S. citizens captured on foreign battlefields. Similarly, the Supreme Court has repeatedly emphasized that the AUMF should be read consistently with international law — which may not settle some of the hardest questions raised in these cases, but at a minimum provides far better guidance than the amorphous language Congress enacted one week after September 11 (e.g., the requirement that the detainee be a belligerent properly subject to military detention under the laws of war). Military detention can last a lifetime, if needed.
Before you declare me an enemy for supporting the Supreme court, the president and congress (for passing AUMF), then meet me here in Afghanistan, and tell me how I am being unconstitutional. Tell it to my fellow soldiers, marines and Airmen who share in harm’s way. Looks like you have the luxury of being an arm-chair quarterback.
I am retired military. Our Supreme Court is corrupt. It has been corrupt for more than a century. I would advise you as a military person to obey all lawful orders and specifically, disobey all unlawful orders. After all, you swore that you would uphold the Constitution. If you obey unlawful orders, you will be a criminal.
The Obama administration moved with astounding alacrity to lock up the man who insulted the so called prophet Mohammed with a 13 minute video.
But look at the case of the Mohammedan Major down at Ft. Hood. Three years later, the Uniform Code of Military Justice is arguing whether or not the accused can sport a beard at his trial, instead of whether or not the guilty Jihadist should be flogged before being hung.
This administration is the greatest disaster to ever hit this nation.
The UCMJ and the military in general has been violated by the so-called Generals/Admirals who are nominally in charge. They have been appointed by Obama. They are, for the most part, traitors to the US Constitution.
2.3 TRillion Dollars Missing from DOD The Day before 9/11/2001
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rRqeJcuK-A
Al Qaeda Never Existed
An excerpt from the documentary, “The Power of Nightmares” Robin Cook, a former British MP and Minister of Foreign Affairs wrote that Al-Qaeda, “literally ‘the database’, was originally the computer file of the thousands of mujahideen who were recruited and trained with help from the CIA to defeat the Russians.” Thus, “Al-Qaeda” was born as an instrument of western intelligence agencies. The creation of Al-Qaeda was facilitated by the CIA and allied intelligence networks, the purpose of which was to maintain this “database” of Mujahideen to be used as intelligence assets to achieve US foreign policy objectives, throughout both the Cold War.
http://tv.globalresearch.ca/2010/12/al-qaeda-never-existed
You are not even useful with your repeated attempts to distract from the islam. Here you go, learn a little more history..
http://www.danielpipes.org/8412/islamists-dominate-european-islam
In 1953, Dwight D. Eisenhower hosted a group of foreign Muslims that included Said Ramadan (1926-95), a leader of arguably the most influential Islamist organization of the twentieth century, the rabidly anti-West Muslim Brotherhood – and also Tariq’s father. The Eisenhower-Ramadan meeting took place in the context of sustained U.S. government efforts to rally Muslims against Soviet communism, in part by putting Said Ramadan on the CIA payroll. Talcott Seelye, an American diplomat who met with him about that time explains: “We thought of Islam as a counterweight to communism.”
2.3 TRillion Dollars Missing from DOD Day before 9/11/ 2001
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rRqeJcuK-A
What do you know about this?
– has ceased to exist, same as the “homeless”, but the press/media will bring back for propaganda if a Republican is ever president again.
One of Bush’s biggest mistakes was “capturing” these sh!tbags for their “intelligence” “value,” instead of simply killing them on the battlefield. Our fastidious, squeamish fixation on limiting “collateral” damage (i.e. enemy civilians) has brought us this indigestible mess of a court proceeding.
Under international law and the law of wars, these detainees are illegal combatants. A rudimentary drum head battlefield hearing to summarily establish affiliation with either Al Quaeda or Taliban at a reasonable suspicion burden of proof, followed by a bullet to the ear and kicking the still quivering body into bulldozed pit is all the “Due Process” that is due.
In fact, Obama’s much disdained “Signature drone strikes” wherein suspicious looking groups of men of a certain age level in Pakistan are vaporized is the preferable method, and all the process that is required by Al Quaeda’s declaration of war against the United States.
Dubai Ice Rinkstar An Olympic-size ice rink, open to all!
http://www.thedubaimall.com/en/entertainment/entertainment-section/dubai-ice-rink-entertainment.html
Now, I can see how the wealth is being distributed!