Lawyers Say Gitmo Computer Problems Make Defending 9/11 Accused Impossible

[Purveyor]

Source: Huffington

Files have been lost, computer searches monitored and e-mails "disappeared into the ether" at Guantanamo Bay since January, say lawyers for the five co-defendants in the 9/11 case.

One after another, defense lawyers stood before Judge James Pohl in a Guantanamo courtroom on Friday to claim the government-provided computer system has made modern-era legal practice impossible. They say they've had to hand-write complex legal documents, travel to send e-mails from their personal laptops over the Starbucks wifi system, and struggle to reconstruct lengthy legal briefs that disappeared without explanation from their computers.

Major Jason Wright, a military defense attorney for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, described how his defense team learned prosecutors had had access to their e-mails, and that once, a case-related computer search caused a Pentagon official to search that individual's computer system. As a result, the Chief Defense Counsel ordered them to stop using the government system for any case-related matters.

"We were basically put back in the 19th century," said Wright.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daphne-eviatar/lawyers-say-gitmo-compute_b_3806590.html

[DallasNE]

1. Well, When You Have Had A Free Reign To Operate Outside The Law

What could one expect -- other than more lawlessness. The surprise would have been if the outcome was different than this.

[ConcernedCanuk]

2. I suspect the Prosecutors haven't lost THEIR files??

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From the link in the OP:

"Prosecutors responded that the problem was being fixed, but insisted in the meantime, the case should go forward."

ummm

Why does WaterGate come to mind?

Same old, same old . .

(sigh)

CC

[snot]

3. K&R'd.

This is utterly disgusting; and I don't like to use words like that.

[blkmusclmachine]

4. How ... convenient.

[caseymoz]

5. And the rise of fascism continues.

There's only one honest ruling a judge can make in a case like this, and that's "case dismissed."