Guantanamo 9/11 suspects on trial

[EddyBlack]

Five men alleged to be involved in the 911 plot are facing secretive military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has confessed to being involved in more than 30 terrorist plots around the world according to the US military, after he has been tortured first of course.

If these men are tried and executed it would be a perversion of legal rights and justice. They have been denied legal rights and a real and fair trial. I would imagine confessions under torture are admissible as evidence in these tribunals. Perhaps if they had real trials they might be able to get a different verdict based on a proper defence.

'The trials have already raised questions about not just the treatment of detainees, but also the legitimacy of American military commissions.

Our correspondent says these trials will be as much a test case as a showcase of military justice.

The US authorities say they have bent over backwards to make sure that the trials are fair but some of its own lawyers have already condemned the process as fundamentally flawed.'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7437164.stm

I think there are dangerous precedents being set here that will signify how the ‘war on terror’ is going to be fought. Also the secret ‘rendition’ programmes that the CIA runs, the legitimacy given to torture, it is a sad thing to see the USA engaging in.

However, I suppose it is better than the smoking gun coming in the form of a mushroom cloud!

 

[purves grundy]

If these men are tried and executed it would be a perversion of legal rights and justice. They have been denied legal rights and a real and fair trial.

Don't mince about with mere 'legal rights', which carry the connotation of varying according to the nation state you're in. It's a denial of fundamental human rights.

The defendants’ treatment while in CIA custody will almost certainly be an issue in the trials. In February 2008, CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden acknowledged that Mohammed had been subjected to “waterboarding” – a form of mock drowning that has been prosecuted as torture by the United States for more than 100 years. Others were reportedly subjected to other abusive interrogation methods while in CIA custody, such as extended sleep deprivation, use of painful stress positions, and forced nudity.

Whereas US federal courts and courts-martial categorically prohibit the use of coerced confessions, the military commissions allow the use of statements obtained through cruel and inhuman interrogations, so long as the interrogation took place prior to 2006, and the military judge finds the evidence to be “reliable” and “in the interests of justice.” Because the United States refuses to label its interrogation methods unlawful – let alone torturous – it may attempt to admit evidence obtained abusively into these cases.

Disgusting.

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/06/04/usint19023.htm


On both sides of the Atlantic, the only voice which can speak of 'security' is the voice of the state. Thank you so much, I'll sleep a lot more soundly now...

 

[fela fan]

Interesting, purely in a historical context, to see the grand old US of A engaging in military 'justice' for civilians.

I thought it was only dictatorships and/or police states that used its military to arbitrate on matters of justice.

To try and guage the american public's (non)reaction on this, imagine for a minute that suddenly british people woke up to find its military presiding over court cases for civilians.

I believe that they would be up in arms...

The whole episode of guantanamo bay, right from the beginning, has exposed the underbelly of this arrogant hypocritical nation. It is showing its true colours without bothering to try and hide them. It is of course the defining mark of the bush presidency, but less obvious it also defines where the american people are at at this juncture of history.

I guess such is the stuff of empires.

My wish remains the same: that the americans get to look so fucking ugly and bullying that we move onto a period of time with no pre-eminent nation/empire.