JAG CENTRAL

From the New York Times: U.S. Is Examining Plan to Bolster Detainee Rights:

The Defense Department is considering substantial changes to the military tribunals that the Bush administration established to prosecute foreign terror suspects at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, military and administration officials say.

The proposed changes, many of which are detailed in a 232-page draft manual for the tribunals that has been circulating among Pentagon lawyers, come after widespread criticism from the federal courts, foreign governments and human rights groups.

Those changes include strengthening the rights of defendants, establishing more independent judges to lead the panels and barring confessions obtained by torture, the officials said.

The draft manual has renewed a sharp debate within the Bush administration between military and civilian lawyers who are pushing to overhaul the tribunals and other officials who have long insisted that suspected terrorists held at Guantánamo are not entitled to many of the basic rights granted defendants in United States courts.

ANALYSIS: This story only highlights an extreme rift between many high level military practitioners, and higher-level civilian lawyers in the Department of Defense. Many military practitioners have argued that having relatively light procedural protections for detained enemy combatants (1) is unacceptable in a nation based on laws, and (2) encourages similar treatment by those who detain our troops. For an academic statement of this argument in a military journal, see David L. Herman, A Dish Best Not Served At All: How Foreign Military War Crimes Suspects Lack Protection Under United States and International Law, 172 MIL. L. REV. 40 (2002). It appears in recent months that the White House, mindful of the fact that the courts have failed to embrace the extreme position that they have no jurisdiction in enemy combatant matters, and eager to use its political capital for more productive projects, are willing to compromise on enemy combatant legal matters.

In other news, Pentagon Will Not Try 17 G.I.s Implicated In Prisoners' Deaths:

Despite recommendations by Army investigators, commanders have decided not to prosecute 17 American soldiers implicated in the deaths of three prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2003 and 2004, according to a new accounting released Friday by the Army.

Investigators had recommended that all 17 soldiers be charged in the cases, according to the accounting by the Army Criminal Investigation Command. The charges included murder, conspiracy and negligent homicide. While none of the 17 will face any prosecution, one received a letter of reprimand and another was discharged after the investigations.

To date, the military has taken steps toward prosecuting some three dozen soldiers in connection with a total of 28 confirmed or suspected homicides of detainees. The total number of such deaths is believed to be between 28 and 31.

From the Washington Post: Detainees Abused In N. Iraq, Army Papers Suggest ("Guards and military intelligence personnel allegedly tortured detainees at a U.S. Army holding facility in northern Iraq in late 2003, according to Army criminal investigative documents released yesterday. The treatment, intended to soften up detainees for interrogations, involved hours-long physical exercise sessions, hoods and beatings at the same time guards at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad were carrying out similar tactics."); Khalid Jailed in France ("A court ordered the imprisonment of Ridouane Khalid, 36, who was released this month from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, his attorney said. Khalid was caught three years ago trying to enter Afghanistan at the height of the U.S. war there.").