GITMO tribunals: not one of the six detainees has even met their lawyer

[babylonsister]

New Roadblocks Delay Tribunals at Guantánamo

Todd Heisler/The New York Times

The shoes of detainees outside a cell at the Guantánamo Bay detention center.

By WILLIAM GLABERSON
Published: April 10, 2008


GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba — When military officials announced war crimes charges against six detainees for the Sept. 11 attacks two months ago, the move was part of an effort to accelerate the Bush administration’s sluggish military commission system, which has yet to hold a single trial.

But the Sept. 11 case immediately hit a snag. Military defense lawyers were in short supply, and even now, two months later, not one of the six detainees has met his military lawyer.

The delay in getting lawyers to those detainees, which largely grew out of a struggle within the Pentagon over legal resources, is indicative of the confounding obstacles facing this latest effort to expedite the military tribunals.

Since fall, when charges had been lodged against just three detainees, military officials have charged 12 more terrorism suspects. Yet there is a growing consensus among lawyers inside and outside the military that few of those cases are likely to actually come to trial before the end of the Bush administration.

“Speed is going to be very, very difficult to accomplish here,” said Stephen A. Saltzburg, a military law expert at George Washington University. “They may be overconfident that if they just push ahead, all the ducks will end up in a row. I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/10/washington/10gitmo.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[babylonsister]

1. pm kick. nt