Gitmo/Terrorist faces military tribunal

[addymiller]

AFP: USS Cole bomb suspect faces Guantanamo tribunal

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Obama has denounced waterboarding -- a type of simulated or near-drowning -- as torture, and Nashiri's defense team said Tuesday that the US had lost "all moral authority" to try their client by torturing him in a secret prison.

"By torturing Mr Nashiri, the United States has lost all moral authority to try Mr Nashiri," his civilian lawyer Richard Kammen told reporters.

"This is a big part of the case -- what happened and how he was treated is important to a death penalty case, should we get to a death penalty case."

Such claims of torture by the defense team could complicate the trial and revive debate over the efficacy of the anti-terror strategy of Obama's predecessor George W. Bush.

Mark Martins, the military commission's chief prosecutor for the case, said Tuesday that "no statement obtained as a result of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" would be admitted into evidence.

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ok--then what ?

Iran and others retaliate on the US?
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http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/11/0...er-public.html


Media organizations seeking greater transparency have proposed that C-SPAN or other organizations be allowed to broadcast the proceedings. But a Pentagon spokesman, Dave Oten, said Saturday that broadcast beyond closed-circuit viewing is forbidden under "federal court rules" that ban recording federal criminal proceedings. Were a channel to broadcast the trial, someone could record it, he said.

[addymiller]

Prosecutors Say Gitmo Detainee Can Be Held Even if Acquitted

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If, on the other hand, the tribunal holds that the attacks on the Cole and The Sullivans were acts of war, then the al-Nashiri defense' position would be strengthened as surely international rules of warfare would consider U.S. naval vessels legitimate targets in a war and thus attempts to bomb them are appropriate acts of war by one belligerent against another and not a war crime.

Furthermore, as one commentator accurately observed:

'Additionally, not only are many of the crimes al-Nashiri is charged with — terrorism and conspiracy — not considered war crimes under international law, but they also have been created to apply retroactively in the military commissions. Prosecuting people for conduct that was not a crime when they committed the act violates the ex post facto prohibition enshrined in the US Constitution and the international legal principle of legality.'

Finally, trying al-Nashiri, and the other detainees grouped with him, in federal court would eliminate all of these vexing legal and constitutional issues. There is precedence for such proceedings as the other men accused of conspiring to bomb the USS Cole and USS The Sullivans have already been indicted in federal court. These courts are able and authorized to adjudicate in all kinds of crimes — war crimes and others — and have years of experience in doing so without the need to make up the law as they go.

[addymiller]

Guantanamo Trial Opens With A Series Of Firsts : NPR