The Gitmo Kangaroo Courts - NO JUSTICE - NONE!

[kpete]

Report: Gitmo detainees denied witnesses
Lawyer calls legal proceedings ‘shams’

Updated: 11:54 p.m. PT Nov 16, 2006
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - The U.S. military called no witnesses, withheld evidence from detainees and usually reached a decision within a day as it determined that hundreds of men detained at Guantanamo Bay were “enemy combatants,” according to a new report.

The analysis of transcripts and records by two lawyers for Guantanamo detainees, aided by more than two dozen law students, found that hearings that determined whether a prisoner should remain in custody gave the accused little opportunity to contest allegations against him.

“These were not hearings. These were shams,” said Mark Denbeaux, an attorney and Seton Hall University law professor who along with his son, Joshua, is the author of the report. They provided an advance copy of the report to The Associated Press late Thursday and planned to release it Friday on the Internet.

Their report, based on an analysis of records of military hearings of 393 detainees, comes as the U.S. government seeks to severely restrict detainee access to civilian courts, arguing that the Combatant Status Review Tribunals should be their main legal recourse.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15759610/

Some of the highlights of the report:

* The government did not produce any witnesses in any hearing.
* The military denied all detainee requests to inspect the classified evidence against them.
* The military refused all requests for defense witnesses who were not detained at Guantanamo.
* In 74 percent of the cases, the government denied requests to call witnesses who were detained at the prison.
* In 91 percent of the hearings, the detainees did not present any evidence.
* In three cases, the panel found that the detainee was “no longer an enemy combatant,” but the military convened new tribunals that later found them to be enemy combatants.

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/11/gitmo-kangaroo-courts.html

[soothsayer]

1. What I don't get is----why is this being done?

[Canuckistanian]

6. That's what I'm wondering, too

For whose benefit is this? They ended up releasing most of the detainees, most of whom were either in the wrong place at the wrong time or had a "similar name" to other wanted terrorists.

They must have known by the meager quality of the evidence against the detainees that there was no need to hold them. But they did. For years, in some cases.

Many were tortured, all were abused in some way. And for what? Information? If you can't get information after a few YEARS worth of interrogation, you ain't getting any. And it would also be years out of date, the people long gone, the trail cold.

So, why?

[grizmaster]

2. So when do the bush junta war crimes trials begin?

K&R

[acmejack]

3. Why bother?

Let's dispense with this and get right to the executions! Pay per view of course at our new state of the art Halliburton built facility.

[mmonk]

4. This is where we need to toughen up against this administration

and it's obedient brainwashed flock as citizens and as a party. I really give a rat's behind what we're called or how the media portrays us. You have to take a stand sometimes without calculation.

[stellanoir]

5. 4th rec

The lawlessness, inhumanity, and sadism is absolutely staggering to me.

On one level I'm thoroughly repulsed that the mistreatment of mostly innocents is continuing unchecked and with presumed impunity.

On another level I've a deep sense that this can't go on for much longer.

I hope I hope.