DoD General Counsel ‘Leaned On’ Me To Rush Detainee’s (Hicks) Trial Ahead Of Australian Elections

[deminks]

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/26/davis-haynes-hicks/

In March 2007, Australian native David Hicks, who was a detainee at Guantanamo Bay, became the first person to be sentenced by a military commission convened under the Military Commissions Act of 2006. At the time, critics charged that Hicks’ sudden plea bargain appeared to be the result of a political deal between Vice President Cheney and then-Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

A month before Hicks’ sentence was announced, Cheney visited Howard in Australia, where the Australian PM lobbied for the trial to “be brought on as soon as humanly possible and with no further delay.” At the time, Howard was in a tough re-election fight and Hicks’ fate was an issue in the campaign.

Yesterday, Col. Morris Davis — who was the lead prosecutor in Hicks’ trial — told Australia’s Herald Sun that he was “leaned on” by the Pentagon in a manner that “only made sense in political context“:

On the end of the line was the Pentagon’s general counsel, William “Jim” Haynes. He asked Colonel Davis how soon he could charge Hicks. The Australian had been held in custody without a hearing for five years after being picked up in Afghanistan in late 2001. <…>

The only way Colonel Davis could make sense of what he was hearing from Mr Haynes was in the context of what he was reading about the political environment in Australia. <…>

(end snip)

So, even Australian politics are more important than the war on terra.

[EFerrari]

1. It's the gift that keeps on giving.

So disgusting.

[Solly Mack]

2. That was the speculation at the time ( a deal made )

and I do believe it an accurate description of how it went down.

K/R