JAG CENTRAL

From the NY Times, Guantanamo Detention Site is Being Transformed, U.S. Says:

In a few years, Pentagon officials say, the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, will have undergone a radical transformation.

The sprawling detention site known as Camp Delta, with its watchtowers, double-wide trailers housing rows of steel cells and interrogation rooms will be mostly demolished.

Instead, a sharply reduced inmate population of those the military considers the most hard-core will inhabit two nearby hard-walled modern prisons. The newest of those, which is still under construction, is modeled on a modern county jail in Michigan and is designed to counter international criticism of Guantánamo as inhumane and, to some, a symbol of American arrogance.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D.C.), Guantanamo Tourist (WashingtonPost.com)

From the Washington Post, Lawmaker Tours Become Part of Guantanamo Life ("As part of a major Pentagon public relations offensive, dozens of lawmakers are being flown to the maximum-security units here for VIP tours conducted by generals who portray the cells as safe and even comfortable places for suspected terrorists to spend their days. The visits, organized by the military in a bid to blunt the impact of numerous reports of inhumane treatment and exotic interrogation techniques, have become such a routine part of life at this spartan, sprawling base that signs on the open doors of two maximum-security cells say "Tour Cell.").

Categories: Guantanamo, Newspapers

From the NY Times, U.S. Plans to Transfer Afghan Prisoners ("The United States will return about 110 Afghan prisoners now at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to Afghanistan, where the Afghan government will decide whether to detain or release them, American and Afghan officials said Thursday. The Pentagon said an additional 350 Afghans detained by the American military at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan would be handed over to the Afghan government after other facilities were built and guards trained.").

From the Washington Post, Afghanistan Agrees To Accept Detainees.

From USA Today, Afghans Held at Guantanamo Will Be Sent to Home Country, and this article regarding Sen. John McCain's efforts to reform the interrogation of prisoners by the U.S. Military, entitled Voice of Experience:

During the Vietnam War, Navy Lt. Cmdr. John McCain was held captive for 5½ years in North Vietnam, where he was placed in solitary confinement and tortured repeatedly. McCain, now a Republican senator from Arizona and the nation's most celebrated ex-POW, has a crisp message for the Bush White House and Pentagon about how to treat detainees: You've got it wrong.

Categories: Guantanamo, Afghanistan, Newspapers

Yesterday (3 AUG 05), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces released two opinions: U.S. v. Arnold, No. 04-0524, and U.S. v. Dooley, No. 05-6002. Arnold involves a fact-specific inquiry of whether the testimony corroberating the accused's confession was secured independently of the confession, as required by Military Rule of Evidence 304(g). CAAF unanimously affirmed the conviction.

Dooley involves review of the trial judge's decision to dismiss the defendant's child pornography retrial with prejudice because it violated the 120-day speedy trial provision of Rule for Court Martial 707. According to RCM 707, anytime on retrial that arraignment does not occur within 120 days of the convening authority receiving the record of trial back from the reversing appeals court, the trial court must dismiss. (Note: RCM 707 is based on the Speedy Trial Act, 18 U.S.C. 3162, and military courts often borrow from that law's legislative history when interpreting RCM 707). When determining whether the dismissal should be with prejudice (meaning the government can never try that charge again), the court weighs four factors: 1) the seriousness of the offense, 2) the facts leading to dismissal, and 3) the effect of dismissal with prejudice on the administration of justice, and 4) prejudice to the accused by retrial. The court of appeals reviews the trial court's decision on prejudice for abuse of discretion. The Navy-Marine Court of Criminal Appeals found that the trial judge abused his discretion. CAAF, in a fact-intense analysis, found that CAAF erred by failing to properly apply the abuse of discretion. It found that the military judge did not abuse his discretion, and affirmed the trial court's decision to dismiss the charge with prejudice. The decision was unanimous.

Categories: CAAF, Appellate

BG Johnny A. Weida, USAFA Commandant of Cadets, Passed Over for Promotion by Senate (usafa.af.mil)

From the NY Times, Cadet Leader for Air Force is Passed Over for Promotion ("The Senate has shelved plans to promote the No. 2 officer at the Air Force Academy, a Christian who has been criticized as proselytizing in memorandums and speeches. The name of the officer, Brig. Gen. Johnny A. Weida, commandant of cadets, was pulled from a promotions list before a Senate vote on Friday to award 21 Air Force generals a second star. General Weida, a 1978 academy graduate, was nominated in May for promotion to major general."), and two letters to the editor entitled, Abuse of Detainees: Not In Our Name.

From the Washington Post, Documents Tell of Brutal Improvisation by GIs:

Iraqi Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush was being stubborn with his American captors, and a series of intense beatings and creative interrogation tactics were not enough to break his will. On the morning of Nov. 26, 2003, a U.S. Army interrogator and a military guard grabbed a green sleeping bag, stuffed Mowhoush inside, wrapped him in an electrical cord, laid him on the floor and began to go to work. Again.

It was inside the sleeping bag that the 56-year-old detainee took his last breath through broken ribs, lying on the floor beneath a U.S. soldier in Interrogation Room 6 in the western Iraqi desert. Two days before, a secret CIA-sponsored group of Iraqi paramilitaries, working with Army interrogators, had beaten Mowhoush nearly senseless, using fists, a club and a rubber hose, according to classified documents.

ANALYSIS: If you read one article this week, read this one. It is thoroughly riveting. It is over five pages long but worth the time. The abuse only gets worse from this beginning excerpt. Most importantly, the accounts allegedly come not from biased witnesses looking to write a book, but from the actual government classified investigation documents.

In other news from the Post, Detainee Alleges Abuse En Route to Guantanamo ("Benyam Mohammed alleged that the torture took place in Pakistan, Morocco and Afghanistan and that he was flown between those countries by American operatives, according to Clive Stafford Smith, a British human rights lawyer who said he represents about 40 Guantanamo Bay prisoners. There is no known independent verification of the allegations made by Mohammed, who the lawyer said reached Guantanamo in September.")

Categories: Guantanamo, Detainee-Abuse, Weida, Discrimination, Air-Force-Academy, Newspapers

...the bar exam is over. My vacation/snooping trip to North Carolina is over. There are no more excuses. I basically have nothing to do for the next 40 days except...

...to blog.