JAG CENTRAL

Busy day for Guantanamo News.

From the NY Times, Justices to Rule on a Challenge to U.S. Tribunals:

The Supreme Court announced on Monday that it would decide the validity of the military commissions that President Bush wants to use to bring detainees charged with terrorist offenses to trial.

Pentagon Charges 5 More in Guantánamo Bay Camp (November 8, 2005)
Roberts's Recusal Is One of Several (November 8, 2005) The case, to be argued in March without the participation of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., places the court back at the center of the national debate over the limits of presidential authority in conducting the war on terror. Last year, the Supreme Court rejected the administration's position that the federal courts had no jurisdiction over those held as enemy combatants at the United States naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

This time, once again, the justices acted over the vigorous opposition of the administration, which urged the court to stay its hand and defer any review until after a detainee had been tried by a military commission and convicted.

Lawyers representing Salim Ahmed Hamdan, the Yemeni who brought the challenge to the commissions, argued however that the issues of domestic and international law raised by the case were sufficiently important to be heard and resolved without further delay.

Chief Justice Roberts is recusing himself, likely because he wrote opinions similar to this one at the Court of Appeals.

Also from the Times, Pentagon Plans Tighter Control of Interrogation:

The Pentagon has approved a new policy directive governing interrogations as part of an effort to tighten controls over the questioning of terror suspects and other prisoners by American soldiers.

The eight-page directive, which was signed without any public announcement last Thursday by Acting Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon R. England, will allow the Army to issue a long-delayed field manual for interrogators that is supposed to incorporate the lessons gleaned from the prisoner-abuse scandals last year.

The Army intends, for example, to ensure that interrogation techniques are approved, up to the highest levels in the Pentagon, that interrogators are properly trained and that personnel in the field are required to report any abuses, Army officials said.

And finally from the Times, Pentagon Charges 5 More in Guantanamo Bay Camp:

Within hours of the Supreme Court decision on Monday to consider the legality of special military commissions to try detainees for war crimes, the Defense Department announced that it had brought charges against an additional five prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

The announcement brings to nine the total of detainees at Guantánamo who are facing war crimes charges under the military commission system. The newly charged detainees include Omar Ahmed Khadr, 19, a Canadian accused of throwing a grenade that killed an American medic, Sgt. First Class Christopher Speer, near Khost, Afghanistan.

Mr. Khadr's case is well known because his lawyers have said that he was mistreated at Guantánamo and that his initial capture and detention when he was 15 violated United States obligations under treaties on treating young people in wartime.

The charges against Mr. Khadr say that his father was a close friend of Osama bin Laden and that he, too, was acquainted with Mr. bin Laden, the Qaeda leader.

You can find the charge sheet for Khadr and the other four here on the DoD Military Commissions Website.

From the Washington Post, High Court to Hear Case on War Powers, and 5 Soldiers Charged With Abuse of Detainees:

Five U.S. soldiers with the 75th Ranger Regiment in Iraq have been charged with abusing three detainees as they were preparing to transfer them to a prison in September, according to U.S. military officials in Baghdad.

The incident occurred in an unspecified "battlefield collection point" in the Baghdad area on Sept. 7, when the five soldiers allegedly beat the detainees they were assigned to guard, said Chief Petty Officer Greg Frazho, a spokesman for Multinational Forces in Iraq. "The detainees got bruises and contusions, caused by striking with a closed and open hand, and hitting with an object described as a broomstick," Frazho said yesterday.

It was unclear yesterday how officials learned of the alleged incident, but Army officials said an investigation began as soon as it came to light. Officials did not release the names of those charged.

Each soldier was charged on Saturday with assault and battery, maltreatment and dereliction of duty. Those charges have been sent to higher officers for evaluation. Frazho said all of the soldiers have been assigned to administrative duties while the charges are pending.

Also from the Post, U.N. Approval Sought To Extend Iraq Stay:

The Bush administration pressed the U.N. Security Council on Monday to pass a resolution extending the mandate of the U.S.-led military coalition in Iraq, providing a legal basis for U.S. and allied troops to remain for at least a year after Iraqis elect their first government under the new constitution on Dec. 15, according to U.S. and European diplomats.

Administration officials said they are seeking the resolution now to spare a new government the politically challenging burden of explicitly approving the continued presence of foreign troops in Iraq. They also hope a U.N. mandate authorizing troops through 2006 would encourage the United States' coalition partners to remain in Iraq, and would avoid a potentially contentious battle within the Security Council next year over whether to renew the authorization even though a new Iraqi government has taken power.

From USA Today, Supreme Court Steps Into Debate Over Detainee Tribunals, 5 Terrorism Suspects at Guantanamo Charged, and Five Soldiers Charged With Abusing Iraqis.