Gitmo: How Detainees Love the Freedom of America Experienced from Cuba

This article is a bit of a dove-tail off of the Omar Khadr post I made a few weeks ago, yet the Khadr case and this case seem to be drastically different. While a military trial by the US is much different than a domestic criminal trial, there are some concerns regarding the case of Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi. According to the chief defense counsel, Army Col. Steve David, he has not been given the personnel or resources to adequately defend Qosi. He has only 9 assistants while the prosecution has 4 times as many. Disregarding Qosi’s guilt or innocence this article highlights some institutional flaws as well as the political football this could turn into upon the change in office. I’ll be interested to see if anything does change such as the author’s suggestion that some of these cases move to a civil or criminal court inside the US versus offshore. I feel like this would be a good question for the presidential contenders. Anyone want to make a guess on what the candidates would do?

Disclaimer: I am a registered Democrat and consider myself to be moderate. Right now the order of my selection for the next President goes (1) Obama, (2) McCain, and (3) Clinton. This may explain my predictions below which are mainly supposed to be a little funny more than reflect my personal political views.

My Guess (with some sarcasm):

Clinton – “I’ve always supported the right to a fair and speedy trial… and I promise to shut down Gitmo the day I come into office… I have the experience! You can’t trust the Republican part right now and Obama is just a baby.”

McCain – “First of all I don’t believe in torture, and I think we should close Gitmo… however, I can’t look soft on national security so I will order the immediate trial of all Gitmo detainees under the current rules and close Gitmo by the end of my 4 years in office as President. Clinton and Obama will just release all of these terrorists back into the world where they can attack America and spread hate, so I’m here to create fear so that you vote for me.”

Obama – “I never supported the illegal war in Iraq so we wouldn’t be in this position to begin with if anyone had listened to me! If we had simply concentrated on Afghanistan maybe we would have properly collected the evidence needed to properly place these detainees on trial. Clinton and McCain will just lead us down the same path… I am the necessary change, trust me… (wink).”

Another Guantanamo prisoner charged with war crimes

An alleged former aide to Osama bin Laden is the 13th detainee at the U.S. military prison to be indicted.
Carol J. Williams, Los Angeles Times, 6 March 2008, Inside "A" Section

MIAMI -- The Pentagon served war crimes charges on a 13th prisoner at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp Wednesday, signaling the Bush administration's intent to step up prosecution of terrorism suspects before the architects of the controversial military tribunals leave office.

The charges allege that Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi of Sudan provided material support for terrorism and conspired with Osama bin Laden. The case is the latest in a series of recent indictments against detainees who had been held without charge for years at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo.

Al Qosi, 47, is accused of having worked as a driver, bodyguard, supply clerk and cook for the Al Qaeda leader at the "Star of Jihad" compound near Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

He is one of about 40 Al Qaeda aides captured by Pakistani forces in December 2001 near the Afghan region of Tora Bora, where Bin Laden survived weeks of bombardment by U.S. warplanes.

Al Qosi is accused of helping Bin Laden and his family escape to Tora Bora, a remote, rugged and naturally defended stronghold on the Pakistani border. He could face life in prison if convicted by a panel of U.S. military officers who will convene to act as a jury.

The military commissions have two courtrooms at the Expeditionary Legal Complex, a maze of tents, portable offices and one high-security building that sprawls across an unused airfield on the U.S. naval base in southern Cuba.

The limited courtroom space had been expected to slow the pace of indictments because once charged, a prisoner must be brought before a judge within 30 days and his trial begun within four months.

Cases initiated last year against another Bin Laden aide, Salim Ahmed Hamdan of Yemen, and Canadian Omar Khadr, who was 15 at the time of his alleged crimes, have stalled repeatedly as military jurists wade through uncharted legal territory.

Dozens of motions are pending in the cases, and the 30-day clock for arraignment is running on three others.

By filling the trial calendar, the Pentagon appeared to be setting up dry runs of the untested legal process that will be used to prosecute self-professed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and five other "high-value" prisoners later this year.

Charges carrying the death penalty were filed last month against Mohammed and the others, but those trials are unlikely to begin for months because of procedural delays and a dearth of defense resources. Only one of the six suspects charged in the Sept. 11 attacks -- the so-called 20th hijacker, Mohammed Qahtani -- has a military lawyer.

The chief defense counsel, Army Col. Steve David, has complained to the Office of Military Commissions in Washington that he has insufficient staff to properly defend the prisoners under indictment. Only nine military defense lawyers have so far been assigned to David's team, whereas the chief prosecutor, Army Col. Lawrence Morris, has four times that many attorneys at work preparing trials.

"The entire system of the military commissions is founded on the concept of defense by military defense counsel, and insufficiency in that defense is a serious institutional flaw," said Miles Fischer, an attorney who has attended Guantanamo sessions for the New York City Bar Assn., whose members represent prisoners trying to get civilian court review of their detention.

Some observers say the stepped-up pace of prosecutions could be a way of ensuring that some defendants are tried by the commissions before the end of President Bush's term.

"They may be attempting to get these cases to progress to a point where it would make it harder for the next president to move them to civilian courts, where they belong," said Shayana Kadidal, senior attorney with the Guantanamo Global Justice Initiative of the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York.

Al Qosi, Hamdan, Khadr and seven others were charged with war crimes in 2003 and 2004, but their trials had not begun before the U.S. Supreme Court declared the commissions unconstitutional in June 2006.

The Republican-controlled Congress at the time passed the Military Commissions Act three months after the high court decision, resurrecting the offshore tribunal.

Copyright 2008 Los Angeles Times