Gitmo Justice

Last week came news that trials of high-profile detainees at Guantanamo Bay were coming this year. Some more perspective on this story is needed. The Nation's Ross Tuttle spoke with Col. Morris Davis, former chief prosecutor for Guantánamo's military commissions, about this. Here is what he learned-

When asked if he thought the men at Guantánamo could receive a fair trial, Davis provided the following account of an August 2005 meeting he had with Pentagon general counsel William Haynes--the man who now oversees the tribunal process for the Defense Department. "[Haynes] said these trials will be the Nuremberg of our time," recalled Davis, referring to the Nazi tribunals in 1945, considered the model of procedural rights in the prosecution of war crimes. In response, Davis said he noted that at Nuremberg there had been some acquittals, something that had lent great credibility to the proceedings.

"I said to him that if we come up short and there are some acquittals in our cases, it will at least validate the process," Davis continued. "At which point, [Haynes's] eyes got wide and he said, 'Wait a minute, we can't have acquittals. If we've been holding these guys for so long, how can we explain letting them get off? We can't have acquittals, we've got to have convictions.'"

'Nuff said. These trials are not about seeking justice for 9/11 or any other terrorist crimes, it's about the Bush administration seeking cover and vindication in their final year in office for 7 years of mistakes and bad policy. Given a chance to admit error and seek a better course-- one which could provide us with the post-9/11 closure that we need-- they always choose to stay the course.

Col. Davis resigned last October, by the way, due to concerns over all of this.

The article concludes-

"If someone was acquitted, then it would suggest we did the wrong thing in the first place. That can't happen," says [Columbia University Law School professor Scott] Horton sardonically. "When the government decides to clear someone, it calls the person 'no-longer an enemy combatant' instead of just saying they made a mistake."

He adds, "For people like Haynes, justice is meant to serve the party."

Yep. Expect these trials to occur as close to election time as possible.