Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | People the law forgot (part two): "'It seems to me that our government's talking out of both sides of its mouth,' says James Harrington, a lawyer from upstate New York who represents a US citizen, not in Guantanamo, awaiting sentencing on terrorism charges. 'We say they're not PoWs and won't be treated as PoWs but at the same time we say we are at war. It either should be one or the other.
... Now, it appears, anyone, US citizen or not, can be declared an 'enemy combatant', at any time, and thus be detained indefinitely at Bush's discretion.
... Speculation that a mass release of European prisoners is imminent, welcome as it is, only highlights the arbitrary nature of the detentions.
... The Bush administration defends the choice of military commissions on the grounds that the alleged, presumably terrorist, offences for which some Guantanamo prisoners will be tried are 'war crimes'; and on the grounds that the commissions will help safeguard classified information that would leak out from normal trials or courts martial. Critics say that neither argument stands up, and that the real reason military commissions are being used is that they give the accused little chance of a fair hearing, and stack the deck in favour of convictions.
... The first thing that strikes the lay student of military commissions is the enormous power vested in the US deputy secretary of defence, Paul Wolfowitz, who is the commissions' 'appointing authority'. The judges - seven in a capital case - are appointed by Wolfowitz. Any judge can be substituted up to the moment of verdict, by Wolfowitz. The military prosecutors are chosen by Wolfowitz. The suspects they charge, and the charges they make, are determined by Wolfowitz. All defendants are entitled to a military defence lawyer, from a pool chosen by Wolfowitz. The defendants are entitled to hire a civilian lawyer, but they have to pay out of their own funds, and by revealing where the funds are, they risk having them seized on suspicion of their being used for terrorist purposes, on the order of Wolfowitz. Defendants need not lose heart completely if convicted. They can appeal, to a panel of three people, appointed by Wolfowitz. When it has made its recommendation, the panel sends it for a final decision to Wolfowitz.
... 'You kidnap people who may be totally innocent, you take them all the way around the world in hoods and shackles, you hold them incommunicado for two years, you don't give them a lawyer and you don't tell them what they're charged with. It's not a matter of what's wrong with it, it's a question of what's right with it. And it achieves nothing.'"
- posted by geoff @ #