Marine Corps colonel among critics of new terror trial rules
Updated 1/19/2007 12:55 AM ET E-mail | Save | Print | Reprints & Permissions | Subscribe to stories like this
Enlarge By Paul J. Richards, AFP/Getty Images
Protesters gather near the U.S. Capitol during the International Day to Shut Down Guantanamo protest on Jan. 11, in Washington, D.C. A coalition of anti-war and human rights groups demonstrated to close the U.S.-run prison in Guantanamo Bay on the fifth anniversary of the first detainees' arrival at the prison.
By Joan Biskupic, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon's release of new rules for military trials of foreign terror suspects triggered a fresh round of questions and criticism Thursday about the administration's handling of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The Pentagon's manual for war-crime trials is 238 pages, but much of the talk about it Thursday focused on rules for using evidence: Suspects may be convicted — and even sentenced to death — based on information from coerced confessions and hearsay evidence.
VIDEO: Coerced testimony could be considered
Coerced confessions are not allowed as evidence in traditional civilian courts or military courts martial. Hearsay evidence — testimony from a witness who merely repeats what someone else said out of court — usually is barred from both types of courts.
Those criticizing the manual for lacking traditional safeguards of military trials included Marine Corps Col. Dwight Sullivan, the chief defense lawyer for the military tribunals, or commissions. Human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Democrats such as Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut also expressed concern that the rules unfairly limit defendants' rights.
The new rules follow Congress' passage last October of the Military Commissions Act. The law came after the Supreme Court rejected President Bush's earlier plan to hold military tribunals to try terrorism suspects.
The court said Bush lacked the power to set up such tribunals without Congress' authorization, and declared that the procedures then in place violated the U.S. Military Code of Justice and Geneva Conventions rules aimed at protecting prisoners of war. Bush had established the tribunal system weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, as U.S.-led forces were launching a worldwide hunt for terrorism suspects.
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