Former Guantanamo Prosecutor Loses Job for Criticizing Military Commissions

[unhappycamper]

Former Guantanamo Prosecutor Loses Job for Criticizing Military Commissions
Andy Worthington
Journalist and author of "The Guantanamo Files"
Posted: December 8, 2009 10:18 AM

So much for the First Amendment. Morris Davis, the retired Air Force Colonel who served as the Chief Prosecutor of the Military Commissions at Guantánamo from September 2005 until his resignation in October 2007, has just lost his job at the Congressional Research Service (a branch of the Library of Congress) for writing, in his personal capacity, an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, in which he drew on his wealth of experience of the Commissions to criticize the Obama administration for its decision to prosecute some Guantánamo prisoners in federal courts, and others in Military Commissions, and a letter to the Washington Post, in which he criticized former Attorney General Michael Mukasey for scaremongering about the administration's decision to try Guantánamo prisoners in federal courts.

In a letter dated November 20, Daniel P. Mulhollan, the director of CRS, told Col. Davis that he had not shown "awareness that your poor judgment could do serious harm to the trust and confidence Congress reposes in CRS," and notified him that he would not be kept on after his one-year probationary period at CRS ends on December 21.

The ACLU immediately stepped in, sending a letter on Friday to Dr. Jim Billington, the Librarian of Congress, arguing that "CRS violated the First Amendment when it fired Davis for speaking as a private citizen about matters having nothing to do with his job there, and that CRS must reinstate Davis to his position in order to avoid litigation."

Aden Fine, staff attorney with the ACLU First Amendment Working Group, said, "The First Amendment protects Col. Davis's right to speak and write as a private citizen about issues on which he has personal knowledge. Col. Davis didn't give up his right to express his opinions and first-hand knowledge about a matter of such public importance when he left the military commissions system and went to work at CRS."

~snip~

I am the head of the Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division at the Congressional Research Service (one of five CRS research divisions) at the Library of Congress. My division does not now nor has it ever had responsibility for providing Congress with advice on military commissions; that responsibility resides with the American Law Division ... The Library of Congress has a regulation on outside activities for staff and it "encourages" outside writing and speaking on topics outside the staff member's area of responsibility and the Congressional Research Service has a similar policy ... In short, it was clear that I was prohibited from expressing my opinions publicly on matters within my area of responsibility, but I believe I retained the same right as all citizens to express opinions on matter outside the scope of my official duties.

Rest of article at; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-worthington/former-guantanamo-prosecu_b_383967.html

[Solly Mack]

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