USA Reality - Guantanamo ... and justice for all?.

October 2008 - Weeks After Prosecutors Resignation, US Drops Charges Against 5 Gitmo Prisoners—But Wont Release Them The US military has dropped all charges against five men held at Guantanamo Bay prison, but has no plans to release them. The news came just weeks after the resignation of Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld, who was the prosecutor in all five cases. He had accused the military of deliberately withholding evidence that could have helped clear them. We speak to Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights. Lets start with these five prisoners, who they are, charges dropped, but they remain in prison. Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights. MICHAEL RATNER: Well, they were people tried by the military commissions. And I think people want to be aware, theres sort of two things going on. Theres the military commissions, and theres the habeas corpus. Military commissions are what try people; the habeas corpus proceedings are what test the detention, even without trial. And I actually think that while theres lots going on within the administration, lots of suppression, that whats going on is theyre trying to put out all of these fires that people have caused them that try and give people rights, both with habeas as well as rights in the courts. These five, of course, were before a military commission. They were two weeks away from a hearing. Typically of the Bush administration, they go and, right before a hearing, they try and change everything, because they cannot sustain a court hearing in any of their cases, really. And as youll see, thats a pattern they followed. Of course, the fact that one of half a dozen prosecutors resigned in this case, claiming that they werent giving all the evidence they should have been to defendants, is obviously very significant here, as well. So, within the military commissions, you have those five. You also have, of course, the administration now saying with Hamdan, the so-called bin Laden driver, that they are now going to ask for a higher sentence for him than he was given, five years and five months—six months. Hes supposed to be out December 31st. Theyre going to ask to keep him in. Underlying that, of course—and I think its being destroyed right now—is the administrations belief that the executive can do whatever he wants in the so-called war on terror, hold people forever and try them in kangaroo courts. So the military commissions system, the kangaroo courts, is really coming apart. But I should also say, the habeas system is also coming apart, which is to say it—we won, after three Supreme Court victories, finally, the right to go into a court and challenge detentions. And what happened just in the last couple of days was, in the Boumediene case, which is the lead case in the Supreme Court, six people charged with allegedly a conspiracy to bomb an embassy in Sarajevo, the administration is no longer depending on those charges, charges which have been depending for years. And again, thats right before the hearing of the habeas case in the district court. So youre seeing, really, the administration policy, I think, coming apart, coming apart in the kangaroo courts, coming apart in trying to hold people. Lieutenant Colonel Darrel Vandeveld is one of a half a dozen prosecutors. Youre not even talking about just the courts going after this administration, as sort of hard as it has been to get them to move. Theres been five—I think five or six prosecutors who have resigned, because the entire system is one in which the President decides, or the Pentagon, what they like and what they dont like. I mean, if someone is pushed to do a prosecution or someone is pushed to withhold evidence, military prosecutors who are trained in the law are not going to accept it, and they resign. His resignation was a big one, because he basically said, we are not giving people what we lawyers call exculpatory evidence, evidence that might show their non-guilt.

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YouTube | October 25, 2008

Tags:. .trying. .try. .put. .going. .could