Posted on 01/05/2006 10:27:35 AM PST by Former Military Chick
Attorneys for a Canadian teen held at Guantánamo Bay are asking a federal judge to postpone the captive's war-crimes trial until the U.S. Supreme Court rules later this year on the constitutionality of President Bush's military commissions.
Pentagon officials have set a hearing Tuesday at the Navy base in Cuba in the case of Omar Khadr, 19, accused of tossing a grenade in Afghanistan that killed a U.S. Army medic among a group of U.S. soldiers attacking an alleged al Qaeda compound.
Whatever the judge's ruling, a commission hearing is expected at Guantánamo next week in the case of alleged al Qaeda propagandist Ali Hamza Bahlul, 39, a Yemeni who has refused an American attorney and thus has no one to seek an injunction in federal court.
It would mark the first commission session in more than a year of court challenges by civil liberties and defense lawyers, who argue there are fundamental flaws in the Bush administration formula for the first U.S. war-crimes tribunals since World War II.
The Pentagon defends the process -- particularly the secrecy surrounding it -- as part of the war on terror. Khadr was 15 at the time of the alleged crime. If convicted he could face life in prison because U.S. authorities have ruled out the death penalty in this particular case.
But his attorneys have asked U.S. District Judge John Bates to postpone Khadr's proceedings until the Supreme Court rules later this year in a similar commissions case -- against Osama bin Laden driver Salim Ahmed Hamdan of Yemen.
Hamdan's military lawyers argue that the Bush administration's military commission process is at odds with U.S. obligations under international law, and doesn't provide due process guaranteed by the Constitution.
In Khadr's case, American University law professors Muneer Ahmad and Rick Wilson are also critical of the Pentagon for pressing charges against a captive who, they say, should have been treated as a juvenile at the time of his capture in a July 2002 clash near Khost, Afghanistan.
U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer, a Special Forces medic from New Mexico, died of his wounds 11 days later, in Germany. Another American lost an eye in the attack, and could be called as a witness.
Bates, who was appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush, has asked for briefs from both sides. The arguments are essentially the same as those that led U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, a Clinton appointee, to order a delay in November in the case of Australian captive David Hicks.
Most of the challenges are being played out at the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., where both Bates and Kollar-Kotelly are judges, because it is handling all habeas corpus petitions filed by Guantánamo captives. Kollar-Kotelly also serves on the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which coordinates with the Justice Department some government wiretapping and covert searches of suspected spies' property. Bates does not.
In a related move, the Justice Department filed notice that it would seek the wholesale dismissal of all Guantánamo habeas suits. It argues that a measure tucked inside the Defense Appropriation Act, which President Bush signed last week, strips civilian judges of most oversight of the offshore prison where the Pentagon now holds about 500 foreign captives as suspected terrorists.
Give me 10 minutes alone in a room with him and I could render this entire argument moot.
No, he should have been treated as an enemy combatant out of uniform and shot as a spy on the spot.
Well there's an interesting tidbit. Did congress actually do something to reign in the courts on the sly?
Bush attached a signing agreement when he signed this measure. He can effectively by pass the stupid McCain stipulation that makes us give citizen rights to terrorists. That is why Bush seemed to cave in on this issue, he found a way to side step it. I don't know if the issue of limitting judge oversight was part of the signing agreement or not. Bush once more has put it to the Dems.
Canadians doing the work that Afghans won't. That whole damned family is a terrorist cell, yet Canada takes NO action against them, and actually supports their 'Rights' as Canadians to wage war against infidels.
Just another reason for me to hate Canada. This goes for the lot of these crap ass countries (france, germany, etc): You guys get in trouble, and I will not lift a finger to help you out. You made your damn bed, now lie in it like a good traitor.
You may be quite skilled but I suggest that 10 minutes is more time than necessary to kill a traitor.
You're right. Tearing his throat out would take under 20 seconds.
Actually, the father is dead, one of the sons is dead, another is in Guantanamo, and another was just turned over to US authorities (by Canadian authorities) to stand trial. The mother and grandmother and the youngest of the sons continues to live here. They have Canadian citizenship and so far there are no legal grounds to eject them from the country. The family is about as popular as the bubonic plague in this country.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/08/AR2005060802358.html?referrer=email&referrer=email
i KNEW i was doing the right thing to hang on to this article!
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