From Chief Prosecutor To Critic at Guantanamo: "Justice System Has Been Corrupted" (Wapo)

[kpete]

From Chief Prosecutor To Critic at Guantanamo

By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 29, 2008; A01



GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, April 28 -- The Defense Department's former chief prosecutor for terrorism cases appeared Monday at the controversial U.S. detention facility here to argue on behalf of a terrorism suspect that the military justice system has been corrupted by politics and inappropriate influence from senior Pentagon officials.

Sitting just feet from the courtroom table where he had once planned to make cases against military detainees, Air Force Col. Morris Davis instead took the witness stand to declare under oath that he felt undue pressure to hurry cases along so that the Bush administration could claim before political elections that the system was working.

............

Davis told Navy Capt. Keith J. Allred, who presided over the hearing, that top Pentagon officials, including Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon R. England, made it clear to him that charging some of the highest-profile detainees before elections this year could have "strategic political value."

............

"He said, 'We can't have acquittals,' " Davis said under questioning from Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brian Mizer, the military counsel who represents Hamdan. " 'We've been holding these guys for years. How can we explain acquittals? We have to have convictions.' "

more at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/28/AR2008042802982_pf.html

[indepat]

1. Politicization of the federal apparatus means corruption of the federal apparatus and corruption

has has reached the critical mass necessary for a gigantic implosion imo. :D

[Cerridwen]

2. Kick. n/t

[annabanana]

3. Nice to finally see in WaPo what we've known for YEARS.

Better late than never, I suppose.

To bad that it'll never be "real" until it goes into full out rotation for at least a week's cycle on the 24/7 TV machine. . .

[Richard Steele]

4. K&R

[malaise]

5. Kick and wish I could recommend n/t