BrainGlutton
06-24-2007, 01:33 PM
An officer who was personally involved in the process, that is. From the AP (http://www.salon.com/wire/ap/archive.html?wire=D8PU33A01.html)
Lt. Col. Stephen Abraham, a 26-year veteran of military intelligence who is an Army reserve officer and a California lawyer, said military prosecutors were provided with only "generic" material that didn't hold up to the most basic legal challenges.
Despite repeated requests, intelligence agencies arbitrarily refused to provide specific information that could have helped either side in the tribunals, according to Abraham, who said he served as a main liaison between the Combat Status Review Tribunals and those intelligence agencies.
"What were purported to be specific statements of fact lacked even the most fundamental earmarks of objectively credible evidence," Abraham said in the affidavit, filed in a Washington appeals court on behalf of a Kuwaiti detainee, Fawzi al-Odah, who is challenging his classification as an "enemy combatant."
<snip>
The military held Combatant Status Review Tribunals for 558 detainees at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay in 2004 and 2005, with handcuffed detainees appearing before panels made up of three officers. Detainees had a military "personal representative" instead of a defense attorney, and all but 38 were determined to be "enemy combatants."
Abraham was asked to serve on one of the panels, and he said its members felt strong pressure to find against the detainee, saying there was "intensive scrutiny" when they declared a prisoner not to be an enemy combatant. When his panel decided the detainee wasn't an "enemy combatant," they were ordered to reconvene to hear more evidence, he said.
Ultimately, his panel held its ground, and he was never asked to participate in another tribunal, he said.
And from WaPo: (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/22/AR2007062202230.html?hpid=moreheadlines)
Abraham, who helped review government intelligence about detainees in 2004 and 2005 and served on a Combatant Status Review Tribunal, is the first person who played such a role to publicly challenge the fairness of the reviews. He said in an interview yesterday that he felt compelled to disclose his misgivings after reading public claims about the fairness of the process made by Rear Adm. James M. McGarrah, who oversaw it.
<snip>
McGarrah, who was the director of the Office for the Administrative Review of the Detention of Enemy Combatants (OARDEC), where Abraham worked for six months, told the federal appeals court in a May declaration that the Pentagon carefully weighed how to determine that combatants should be detained.
Abraham said that, to the contrary, he repeatedly raised his concerns during his six-month stint in the office, including direct appeals to McGarrah. He said the evidence presented to the tribunals lacked specificity, and that exculpatory information about the detainees was unavailable and possibly withheld. He said that government agencies sometimes claimed that detainees were "enemy fighters" or "warriors" after saying that they were on a jihad or ascertaining their presence in a specific location.
Abraham also said in the interview that legal standards for the unusual tribunals were nearly nonexistent. He equated the government hearsay presented about detainees with "a game of telephone."
In his affidavit, Abraham said there was considerable pressure from commanders for officers serving on the tribunals to determine that detainees were enemy fighters. He also said that it was "well known" that those officers who concluded otherwise would have to explain their findings to McGarrah and his top aides.
He said he and two fellow panel members were closely questioned by McGarrah and his deputy after they decided that there was not enough evidence to conclude that a prisoner was an enemy fighter, and were then ordered to hold an expanded hearing to reconsider their conclusion.
Offered without comment, except for a hearty :mad: .
Lt. Col. Stephen Abraham, a 26-year veteran of military intelligence who is an Army reserve officer and a California lawyer, said military prosecutors were provided with only "generic" material that didn't hold up to the most basic legal challenges.
Despite repeated requests, intelligence agencies arbitrarily refused to provide specific information that could have helped either side in the tribunals, according to Abraham, who said he served as a main liaison between the Combat Status Review Tribunals and those intelligence agencies.
"What were purported to be specific statements of fact lacked even the most fundamental earmarks of objectively credible evidence," Abraham said in the affidavit, filed in a Washington appeals court on behalf of a Kuwaiti detainee, Fawzi al-Odah, who is challenging his classification as an "enemy combatant."
<snip>
The military held Combatant Status Review Tribunals for 558 detainees at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay in 2004 and 2005, with handcuffed detainees appearing before panels made up of three officers. Detainees had a military "personal representative" instead of a defense attorney, and all but 38 were determined to be "enemy combatants."
Abraham was asked to serve on one of the panels, and he said its members felt strong pressure to find against the detainee, saying there was "intensive scrutiny" when they declared a prisoner not to be an enemy combatant. When his panel decided the detainee wasn't an "enemy combatant," they were ordered to reconvene to hear more evidence, he said.
Ultimately, his panel held its ground, and he was never asked to participate in another tribunal, he said.
And from WaPo: (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/22/AR2007062202230.html?hpid=moreheadlines)
Abraham, who helped review government intelligence about detainees in 2004 and 2005 and served on a Combatant Status Review Tribunal, is the first person who played such a role to publicly challenge the fairness of the reviews. He said in an interview yesterday that he felt compelled to disclose his misgivings after reading public claims about the fairness of the process made by Rear Adm. James M. McGarrah, who oversaw it.
<snip>
McGarrah, who was the director of the Office for the Administrative Review of the Detention of Enemy Combatants (OARDEC), where Abraham worked for six months, told the federal appeals court in a May declaration that the Pentagon carefully weighed how to determine that combatants should be detained.
Abraham said that, to the contrary, he repeatedly raised his concerns during his six-month stint in the office, including direct appeals to McGarrah. He said the evidence presented to the tribunals lacked specificity, and that exculpatory information about the detainees was unavailable and possibly withheld. He said that government agencies sometimes claimed that detainees were "enemy fighters" or "warriors" after saying that they were on a jihad or ascertaining their presence in a specific location.
Abraham also said in the interview that legal standards for the unusual tribunals were nearly nonexistent. He equated the government hearsay presented about detainees with "a game of telephone."
In his affidavit, Abraham said there was considerable pressure from commanders for officers serving on the tribunals to determine that detainees were enemy fighters. He also said that it was "well known" that those officers who concluded otherwise would have to explain their findings to McGarrah and his top aides.
He said he and two fellow panel members were closely questioned by McGarrah and his deputy after they decided that there was not enough evidence to conclude that a prisoner was an enemy fighter, and were then ordered to hold an expanded hearing to reconsider their conclusion.
Offered without comment, except for a hearty :mad: .