Military
Commission at Gitmo, trial opens with a series of firsts
National
Public Radio November 9, 2011 Wednesday,
MORNING EDITION,
GUESTS: Matt
Waxman, Richard Kammen, Mark Martins
Military
Commission at Gitmo, trial opens with a series of firsts
Today, an
arraignment comes at the U.S. Naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The defendant
is accused of orchestrating the bombing of an American ship - the USS Cole - 11
years ago. If he's found guilty, he could be put to death. The complicated case
raises many issues, including long-term detention and torture. NPR's Dina
Temple-Raston reports from Guantanamo Bay.
The trial of
Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri marks a
series of firsts. This it the first military commission case entirely initiated by the Obama
administration. He's the first detainee to be subjected to new rules that are
supposed to make these military trials more transparent. And Matt Waxman, who
used to be in charge of detainee affairs for the Bush administration, says
there's other new ground.
(DO- meaning
that the first military commission fixed the problems that surfaced in Hamdan ?)
It's the
first really high value detainee, high profile detainee, to go through
this process and it involves the death penalty. And if we get to that stage,
that's going to raise all kinds of interesting and very, very controversial,
legal, strategic and diplomatic issues.
(DO – death
penalty? EU will send another demarche? )
The military
commissions haven't had a death penalty case before either. So, amid all these
firsts, today's trial is seen as a test of sorts. A test of whether a separate
military justice system in Guantanamo can provide the same impartial justice as
a criminal court in the United States.
On top of
that, the case is complicated. Al-Nashiri is accused of planning the bombing of
the USS Cole. It was refueling in Yemen when a rubber boat full of explosives
drew up alongside and detonated. Seventeen servicemen and women died in the
attack. For his alleged role, al-Nashiri is being charged with war crimes,
including terrorism and conspiracy and murder. But the
attack happened before Congress authorized military action against al-Qaida.
Another
issue: Al-Nashiri was arrested in 2002 and then disappeared for nearly four
years. The CIA has acknowledged that he was in their custody. And that he was
water-boarded and subjected to other enhanced interrogation
techniques. So the military commission will have to grapple with the issue
of torture too.
For people
tracking Guantanamo detainees, there will be a more basic milestone today. When
al-Nashiri walks into the courtroom, it will be the first time he's been seen
in public in nine years.
I'm Richard
Kammen. I am the learned counsel, or the death penalty expert, appointed by the
Department of Defense.
Kammen is
al-Nashiri's lead attorney. He met reporters in an empty airplane hanger just a
stone's throw from the courthouse yesterday. He offered a list of reasons why
he thinks the deck is stacked against his client. For example, even though the
arraignment is today, the government has yet to give the defense any discovery.
The Pentagon released the more than 200 pages of new rules governing the
commissions, but that was just two days ago.
You know,
we're all going to be dressed in suits. It's going to look like a court, but it
is not a real court. There is nothing about this that is fair, legitimate. This
is a court organized to convict. It is a court organized to kill.
The Obama
administration and key military officials disagree.
I'm Brigadier
General Mark Martins. I'm the chief prosecutor of military commissions.
Martins is
the man who decides which detainees will have a military commission trial and
when. And, as he sees it, two acts of Congress: a Supreme Court decision, and
an executive review have helped craft a system to try terrorists. And that
system is fair.
Reasonable
people looking at this system, I think, will see that it really withstands
scrutiny.
The scrutiny
begins in earnest today. And not just because there will be people in the
courtroom watching the proceedings. There will be a closed circuit television
feed that will broadcast the arraignment to the United States for the first
time. It can be seen at Fort Meade, in Maryland, and the public is allowed to
attend.
