Rumsfeld “messed up” Guantanamo trials- Lawyer

[DaSangarTalib]

A military defense lawyer accused U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his appointees of messing up rules granting fair trials for Guantanamo prisoners.

"We can't help it that the secretary of defense and his delegees have messed this thing up, but they have," military lawyer Army Maj. Tom Fleener told the presiding officer at one of the hearings.

"If the rules don't provide for a full and fair trial, then they violate the president's order."

According to tribunal rules set by the Pentagon defendants must have U.S. military lawyers who are permitted to see secret evidence that the accused may not be allowed to view.

Pentagon officials have refused to allow self-representation, which is a fundamental right in all courts, Fleener, who was trying to persuade the presiding officer to let a Yemeni defendant act as his own attorney, said.

Fleener wanted Col. Peter Brownback to permit the defendant act as his own attorney on charges of conspiring to attack civilians and destroy property.

Fleener, appointed to defend Ali Hamza al Bahlul, accused of conspiring to carry out terror attacks and acting as Al Qaeda’s Osama bin Laden's bodyguard and making the network’s recruiting videos, complained that his client cannot get a fair trial unless the rules change.

"As the world looks at this system, it's going to have no legitimacy whatsoever".

Bahlul, who refuses to deal with any lawyer hired by the U.S. military, wants to act as his own attorney or to have a Yemeni lawyer.

Similar requests were made by two other defendants.

The prosecution agrees they should have that right, according to the chief prosecutor, Col. Moe Davis.

"Give him the opportunity. If he screws it up, then he had his opportunity," he said (referring to Bahlul).

President Bush set those tribunals to try what he and his administration refer to as “terror suspects” following September 11 attacks on the United States.

Donald Rumsfeld and his delegates were assigned to set rules that grant prisoners the right of getting a full and fair trial while protecting national security.

But military defense lawyers and human rights groups call the tribunals unfair and staged only to ensure convictions.

Pentagon rules, including one that gives only the presiding officer the right to act essentially as judge, rather than all the tribunal members sharing that role, violate the government orders to ensure fair trials, Defense lawyers say.

So far ten Guantanamo detainees had been charged by the tribunals and might face life in prison if convicted.

Omar Khadr, a Canadian who has been accused of murdering a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan, threatened on Wednesday to boycott the tribunal, protesting being moved to a solo cell where he finds great difficulty meeting with his lawyers.

• U.S. threatens int`l law

Meanwhile, Philippe Sands, the law partner of the wife of the British Prime Minister Tony Blair, accused the U.S. of threatening International law by its repetitive rule-breaking in its war against terrorism.

Addressing an audience at the New America Foundation in Washington, Sands, professor of international law at University College in London and a founding member of the Matrix law office, alongside his partner Cherie Blair, wife of the British Primier, said that “Global rules matter and I think global rules have contributed in a very large way to American power in the world”.

Sands was promoting his book, 'Lawless World: America and the Making and Breaking of Global Rules--From FDR`s Atlantic Charter to President George W. Bush`s Illegal War', where he published excerpts of a Jan. 31, 2003 British government document revealing U.S. plans to provoke Iraq into a war.

“It is clear they (Bush and Blair) knew they weren’t going to find any evidence (of nuclear weapons) through inspection,” said Sands.

“The memo is significant because it indicates the clear indecision of the decision-making process.”

“The story that emerges is that President Bush decided very early that he’s going to get rid of Saddam Hussein,” said Sands, who also stressed that the British PM supported the endeavor from the very beginning.

“I think he (Blair) has pulled the wool over all of your eyes in the United States -- there is no substance and he has a severe attention deficit problem with the absence of attention to important points of detail.”

“I don’t think (Sept. 11, 2001) justifies what has happened ... and the need to fashion a global order in a new image,” Sands said.

Bush’s declaration of 'War on Terror' right after Sept. 11 attacks showed very little responsibility towards the potential consequences, Sands added.

"America has been in a state of fearfulness since Sept. 11 (2001) -- that fear has been able to squelch the debate -- if you’re not with us, you’re against us, says the administration," said Sands.

"Americans should have responded more forcefully."

Sands also slammed the U.S. President for blindly carrying out Vice President **** Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s ideas. He said that one can easily separate the 'good rules' from the 'bad rules.'

“We know that ghastly legal advice was given on why the torture rule didn’t apply,” he said.

“If every country’s domestic law says international laws don’t apply, then every country would be free from the consequences of that approach.”

9/11 attacks shifted America away from the visionary Atlantic Charter on international legalities, created by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and American President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Sands said.

After the attacks, “rules were now seen as posing unnecessary constraints on American power,” he said.

“If America is not batting for international law, no one else will.”

Al-Jazeera

[mahdisoldier19]

Offcourse its true that there were severe abuse in the bay and they still try to clear it up