The Guantanamo military commissions are military tribunals authorized by presidential order, then by the Military Commissions Act of 2006, and currently by the Military Commissions Act of 2009 for prosecuting detainees held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps.
History[edit]
The American Bar Association reported in January 2002:
The United States Department of Defense (DOD) organized military tribunals to judge charges against enemy combatant detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay detention camp. In the early years, the camp authorities did not allow foreign detainees access to attorneys, or materials supporting their charges, and the executive branch declared them outside the reach of due process under habeas corpus. In Rasul v. Bush (2004), the US Supreme Court ruled that they did have rights to habeas corpus and had to be provided access to legal counsel and an opportunity to challenge their detention before an impartial tribunal.
On June 29, 2006, the Supreme Court had ruled in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld Docket 05-194, with a 5-3 decision for the detainee Salim Ahmed Hamdan. It effectively declared that trying Guantanamo Bay detainees under the existing Guantanamo military commission (known also as Military Tribunal) was illegal under US law, including the Geneva Conventions.[2]
According to the opinion (Paragraph 4, page 4):
and operate tribunals and is required to get authorization to do so from the United States Congress, as part of the separation of powers in the US government.
With the War Crimes Act in mind, this ruling presented the Bush administration with the risk of criminal liability for war crimes. To address these legal problems, the president requested and Congress passed the Military Commissions Act.[3]
On September 28 and September 29, 2006, the US Senate and US House of Representatives, respectively, passed theMilitary Commissions Act of 2006, and President Bush signed it on October 17, 2006. The bill was controversial for continuing to authorize the President to designate certain people as "unlawful enemy combatants," thus making them subject to military commissions, and depriving them of habeas corpus.
In Boumediene v. Bush (2008), the US Supreme Court ruled that foreign detainees held by the United States, including those at Guantanamo Bay detention camp, did have the right of habeas corpus under the US constitution, as the US had sole authority at the Guantanamo Bay base. It held that the 2006 Military Commissions Act was an unconstitutional suspension of that right.
Comparisons to U.S. and international systems[edit]
United States justice systems[edit]
The United States has two parallel justice systems, with laws, statutes, precedents, rules of evidence, and paths for appeal. Under these justice systems, prisoners have certain rights. They have a right to know the evidence against them; they have a right to protect themselves against self-incrimination; they have a right to counsel; and they have a right to have the witnesses against them cross-examined.
The two parallel justice systems are the Judicial Branch of the U.S. Government, and a slightly streamlined justice system named the Uniform Code of Military Justice(UCMJ) for people under military jurisdiction. People undergoing a military court martial are entitled to the same basic rights as those in the civilian justice system.
The Guantanamo military trials under the 2006 MCA do not operate according to either system of justice. The differences include:
- Unlike civilian courts, only two-thirds of the jury needs to agree in order to convict someone under the military commission rules. This includes charges such as supporting terrorism, attempted murder, and murder.[4]
- The accused are not allowed access to all the evidence against them. The Presiding Officers are authorized to consider secret evidence which the accused have no opportunity to see or refute.[5]
- It may be possible for the commission to consider evidence that was extracted through coercive interrogation techniques before passage of the Detainee Treatment Act.[6] But, legally, the commission is restricted from considering any evidence extracted by torture, as defined by the Department of Defense in 2006.[7]
- The proceedings may be closed at the discretion of the Presiding Officer, so that secret information may be discussed by the commission.[8]
- The accused are not permitted a free choice of attorneys, as they can use only military lawyers or those civilian attorneys eligible for the Secret security clearance.[9]
- Because the accused are charged as unlawful combatants (a certain category of people who are not classified as prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions), then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said in March 2002 that an acquittal on all charges by the commission is no guarantee of a release.
International[edit]
Note that international human rights law prohibits trying civilians in military tribunals. Adding to the fact that this "comparison" is misleading due to the fact that the United States has never ratified the International Criminal Court statute, and in fact it has withdrawn its original signature of accession when it feared repercussions of the Iraq War.[10]
Much like the military commissions, the International Criminal Court (ICC) trial procedures call for:
- A majority of the three judges present, as triers of fact, may reach a decision, which must include a full and reasoned statement.[11] However, and unlike the U.S. Military Commission, those are judges and not mere military officers. Additionally, the ICC statute requires the judges to be of a high level of competence in criminal law and the necessary relevant experience; or have established competence in relevant areas of international law such as international humanitarian law and the law of human rights and extensive experience in a professional legal capacity which is of relevance to the judicial work of the Court.[12]
- Trials are supposed to be public, but proceedings are often closed, and such exceptions to a public trial have not been enumerated in detail.[13] Nonetheless, the ICC statute explicitly states that the principle is a public trial, and exceptions could be entertained by the judges if they provide sufficient grounding.[12]
- In camera proceedings are allowed for protection of witnesses or defendants as well as for confidential or sensitive evidence.[14] However, the statute states that this is an exception to the principle of public hearings which the court applies in particular to victims of sexual violence and children who are victims or witnesses.[12]
- Hearsay and other indirect evidence is not explicitly prohibited in the statute, which adds flexibility to the proceedings due to the different legal traditions of the judges or of the applied law. But it has been argued the court is guided by hearsay exceptions which are prominent in common law systems,[15]similar to the military commissions.[16] Nonetheless, established rules of international law provides that admissibility of such evidence by guided by "hearsay exceptions generally recognized by some national legal systems, as well as the truthfulness, voluntariness and trustworthiness of the evidence." [11]
Commission cases[edit]
| Name | Charges | Verdict | Dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| David Hicks | Providing material support for terrorism[17] | Found guilty, sentenced to seven years in prison (only served nine months of penalty, mostly in Australia, under terms of plea agreement) | Charged: February 3, 2007[17] Sentenced: March 30, 2007 Arrived in Australia: May 20, 2007 Released: December 29, 2007 |
| Salim Hamdan | Conspiracy; providing material support for terrorism | Acquitted on conspiracy charge; found guilty for providing material support and sentenced to five and a half years (66 months) in prison (credited for 61 months in detention); conviction vacated by Appeals Court in October 2012 | Captured: November 24, 2001 Charged: May 10, 2007 Sentenced: August 7, 2008 Transferred to Yemen: November 26, 2008[18] Released: December 27, 2008 Acquitted: October 16, 2012[19] |
| Ali Hamza al-Bahlul | conspiracy, solicitation to commit murder, and providing material support for terrorism | Sentenced to life imprisonment without parole in 2008; conviction vacated by Court of Appeals in 2013 | Charged: February 9, 2008 Sentenced: November 4, 2008[20] Acquitted: January 25, 2013[21] |
| Ibrahim al Qosi | Captured: December 2001 | ||
| Omar Khadr | Murder in violation of the law of war; attempted murder in violation of the law of war; conspiracy; providing material support for terrorism; spying | Charged: February 2, 2007 | |
| Sufyian Barhoumi | |||
| Ghassan al-Shirbi | |||
| Jabran al-Qahtani | |||
| Benyam Mohammed | All charges dropped | ||
| Abdul Zahir | |||
| Mohamed Jawad | Three counts of attempted murder; three counts of committing serious bodily harm | All charges withdrawn and dismissed. |
|
| Noor Uthman Muhammed | One count of providing material support for terrorism; conspiracy | Plea of guilty to all counts |
Boycott of Military Commissions[edit]
In 2006, after charges were laid against a number of detainees a boycott against the judicial hearings was declared by Ali al-Bahlul. The boycott gained momentum in 2008 when more detainees faced Guantanamo military commissions. Public confidence in the fairness of the trials reached all-time lows after the boycotts began.[22][clarification needed]
The commission members[edit]
Initially the identity of the commission members were to be kept hidden, and the commission was to consist of a Presiding Officer (a lawyer), at least four other officers (between eight and eleven in capital cases), and one alternate.
The structure of the commission was radically revised in late 2004. The impartiality of five of the officers was challenged, and two of the officers were removed. All five officers of the commission have an equal vote.
| Peter Brownback | Colonel (retired) |
| Christopher Bogdan | ColonelUSA |
|
| R. Thomas Bright | Colonel USMC |
| |||
| Curt S. Cooper | Lieutenant Colonel U.S. Army |
| |||
| Jack K. Sparks Jr. | Colonel USMC |
| |||
| Timothy K. Toomey | Lieutenant Colonel USAF |
| Ralph Kohlmann | ColonelUSMC |
|
Legal advisors[edit]
There have been three individuals who have held the position of legal advisor to the civilian in charge of the Office of Military Commissions: Brigadier GeneralThomas Hemingway, Brigadier General Thomas W. Hartmann and Mr. Michael Chapman.
The lawyers[edit]
| John D. Altenburg | Major General (retired) |
|
| Thomas Hemingway | Brigadier General |
|
| Peter Brownback | Colonel (retired) |
|
| Ralph Kohlmann | Colonel USMC |
|
| Fred Borch | Colonel |
|
| Robert L. Swann | Colonel |
|
| Dwight H. Sullivan | Colonel USMC Reserve |
|
| Muneer Ahmad | civilian |
|
| Robert Chester | Colonel |
|
| John Carr | Captain |
|
| Morris Davis | Colonel U.S. Air Force |
|
| Thomas Fleener | Major Army Reserve |
|
| William C. Kuebler | Lieutenant CommanderU.S. Navy |
|
| John Merriam | Captain U.S. Army |
|
| Michael Mori | Major USMC Reserve |
|
| Robert Preston | Major |
|
| Robert D. Rachlin | civilian |
|
| Sharon Shaffer | — |
|
| Philip Sundel | — |
|
| Charles Swift | Lieutenant Commander |
|
| Carrie Wolf | Captain USAF |
|
Security precautions[edit]
On January 2, 2008 Toronto Star reporter Michelle Shephard offered an account of the security precautions reporters go through before they can attend the hearings:[25]
- Reporters were only allowed to bring in one pen;
- Female reporters were frisked if they wore underwire bras;
- Reporters were not allowed to bring in their traditional coil-ring notepads;
- The bus bringing reporters to the hearing room is checked for explosives before it leaves;
- 200 metres from the hearing room reporters dismount, pass through metal detectors, and are sniffed by chemical detectors for signs of exposure to explosives;
- Only eight reporters are allowed into the hearing room—the remainder watch over closed circuit TV;
Suspension and possible revival[edit]
On January 22, 2009, new US President Barack Obama, who had said during his 2008 campaign that he would reject the Military Commissions Act if elected,[3]issued an executive order instructing the Secretary of Defense to immediately take steps sufficient to ensure that no new charges are sworn, or referred to a military commission under the Military Commissions Act of 2006 and the Rules for Military Commissions, and that all proceedings of such military commissions to which charges have been referred but in which no judgment has been rendered, and all proceedings pending in the United States Court of Military Commission Review, are halted.[26]
On January 29, 2009 the order was overturned. Guantanamo military commission judge, Army Colonel James Pohl, ruled against the order in the case of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri is one of three Guantanamo Bay inmates known to have been subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques.[27] In May 2009, The New York Times reported that the Obama administration considered the tribunals as an alternative to trying detainees in the regular court system.[3]
On March 7, 2011, President Obama authorized further trials under military commissions for Guantanamo detainees.[28] On the same day, he signed Executive Order 13567 authorizing the creation of Periodic Review Boards (PRB) to determine the fate of prisoners who will not be prosecuted in the commissions or in Federal Court.[28][29] The Washington Post described this latter channel as "a formal system of indefinite detention."[29] At the time, 48 of the 172 prisoners held at Guantanamo were expected to be overseen by the PRB, due to "evidentiary problems" with putting them on trial.[29] The first such review was convened in July 2013.
Costs[edit]
According to Hindustan Times the electronic equipment that was installed in courtroom number 2 cost $4 million USD.[30]
See also[edit]
 | Wikinews has related news:U.S. military tribunals in Guantanamo Bay lack Congressional authorization, violate US law |
 | Wikisource has original text related to this article: |
- List of resignations from the Guantanamo military commission
- Boycott of Guantanamo Military Commissions
- Combatant Status Review Tribunal
- Administrative Review Board
- Command responsibility
- court martial
- Geneva Conventions
- Illegal combatant
- Jus ad bellum
- Jus in bello
- Lawfare
- Military law
- War on Terror
- Military Police: Enemy Prisoners of War, Retained Personnel, Civilian Internees and Other Detainees
References[edit]
- ^ "American Bar Association Task Force on Terrorism and the law report and recommendations on Military Commissions" (PDF). American Bar Association. January 4, 2002. Retrieved 2007-12-16.
- ^ "Syllabus: Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense" (PDF). Supreme Court of the United States. October 2005. Retrieved 2007-12-17.
- ^ a b c Glaberson, William (May 2, 2009). "U.S. May Revive Guantánamo Military Courts" (webpage). The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-05-02.
- ^ [1], Calgary Sun
- ^ Sean Flynn, "The Defense Will Not Rest", GQ Magazine, August 2007, p. 1
- ^ "FAQs about the Military Commissions Act". The Center for Victims of Torture. Archived from the original on 2007-12-22. Retrieved 2007-12-17.
- ^ "Military Commission Instruction No. 10" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. March 24, 2006. Retrieved 2007-12-16.
- ^ rcfp.org Feb 28 2004
- ^ "Trial Guide for Military Commissions" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. August 17, 2004. Retrieved 2007-12-17.
- ^ US Dept. of State: News Release
- ^ a b Schabas, William A. (2011). An Introduction to the International Criminal Court. Cambridge University Press. p. 312. ISBN 978-0-521-15195-5.
- ^ a b c Article 67.1 and 68.2 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court
- ^ Schabas 2011, pp. 303–304.
- ^ Schabas 2011, p. 304.
- ^ Schabas 2011, p. 312.
- ^ Shawcross, William (2012). Justice and the Enemy: From the Nuremberg Trials to Khaled Sheikh Mohammed. PublicAffairs. p. 120. ISBN 9781586489755.
- ^ a b"http://www.foreignminister.gov.au/releases/2007/joint_ruddock_hicks.html".Minister for Foreign Affairs (Australia). 2007-02-03. Retrieved 2008-08-11. External link in
|title=(help) - ^ "Bin Laden driver arrives in Yemen". Al-Jazeera. November 26, 2008. Retrieved October 5, 2010.
- ^ Cushman, Jr., John H. (2012-10-16). "Appeals Court Overturns Terrorism Conviction of Bin Laden's Driver". The New York Times. Retrieved 2013-01-01.
- ^ Percival, Jenny (November 4, 2008). "Guantánamo jury jails Bin Laden media chief for life". The Guardian. London. Retrieved February 14, 2010.
- ^ "Civilian court rulings cast shadow over Sept. 11 at Guantanamo as hearings resume". The Washington Post. Associated Press. 2013-01-27. Archived fromthe original on 2013-01-28. Retrieved 2013-01-29.
- ^ Colson, Deborah. Human Rights First, Another Boycott at Guantánamo, Another Test for the Military Commission System, April 30, 2008
- ^ "At Gitmo, still no day in court: How feds avoid hearings for terror suspects — despite Supreme Court ruling". Newsday. June 15, 2005. Archived from the original on October 1, 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-17.
- ^ "U.S. prosecutor in Khadr case blasts sympathetic views of Canadian teen".CBC. January 10, 2006. Retrieved 2007-12-16.[dead link]
- ^ Michelle Shephard (January 2, 2008). "Guantanamo hearings try patience: Underwire bra, extra pen among items unpopular with military overseers at terrorist suspects' trials". Toronto Star. Retrieved 2008-01-04.
- ^ "Closure Of Guantanamo Detention Facilities". Whitehouse.gov. 2009-01-22. Archived from the original on 2009-01-30. Retrieved 2009-01-27.
- ^ "Judge rejects Obama bid to stall trial". NZ Herald - AP. 2009-01-29. Archived from the original on 2012-09-05. Retrieved 2009-02-07.
- ^ a b Shane, Scott; Landler, Mark (2011-03-07). "Obama Says Guantánamo Trials Can Resume". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2015-11-09.
- ^ a b c Finn, Peter; Kornblut, Anne E. (2011-03-08). "Obama creates indefinite detention system for prisoners at Guantanamo Bay". The Washington Post.ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2015-11-09.
- ^ "US hi-tech terror court". Hindustan Times. 2010-07-01. Archived from the original on 2010-07-02.
The electronic equipment in “Courtroom No 2” is worth four million dollars, according to the US military here who put the total cost of the “multidefendant” court at 12 million dollars.
External links[edit]
- Military Commissions official website
- "Defense Department Picks Officials for Military Tribunal Posts: Appointing authority, legal advisor, review panel members named". United States Department of Defense. December 30, 2003. Archived from the original on October 9, 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-14.
- Amnesty International
- John D. Altenburg, Defense Department Briefing on Military Commission Hearings, Department of Defense, August 17, 2004
- Military Tribunals: Historical Patterns and Lessons, CRS Report for Congress July 9, 2004
- James Meek, US fires Guantánamo defence team, The Guardian, December 3, 2003
- American Bar Association Task Force on Terrorism and the Law Report and Recommendations on Military Commissions: January 4, 2002(PDF)
- At Gitmo, still no day in court: How feds avoid hearings for terror suspects — despite Supreme Court ruling, Newsday, June 15, 2005
- Leaked emails claim Guantánamo trials rigged Australian Broadcasting Corporation August 1, 2005*Leaked emails claim Guantánamo trials rigged Australian Broadcasting Corporation August 1, 2005
- UK resident released from Guantanamo, Breaking Legal news, April 1, 2007
- Rules Are Strict for Journalists Covering Gitmo
- Human Rights First; Undue Process: An Examination of Detention and Trials of Bagram Detainees in Afghanistan in April 2009 (2009)[permanent dead link]
- Human Rights First; Arbitrary Justice: Trial of Guantánamo and Bagram Detainees in Afghanistan (2008)
- Human Rights First: In Pursuit of Justice; Prosecuting Terrorism Cases in the Federal Courts (2009)
- Kevin J. Barry (November 2003). "Military Commissions: Trying American Justice". Army Lawyer. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-08-01. Retrieved2009-08-01.
- Frederic L. Borch III (November 2003). "Why Military Commissions Are the Proper Forum and Why Terrorists Will Have "Full and Fair" Trials: A Rebuttal to Military Commissions: Trying American Justice". Army Lawyer. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-08-01. Retrieved 2009-08-01.
- Kevin J. Barry (November 2003). "Editorial Comment: A Response to Why Military Commissions Are the Proper Forum and Why Terrorists Will Have "Full and Fair" Trials". Army Lawyer. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-08-01. Retrieved 2009-08-01.
- Mix and Match at the Guantanamo Military Commissions
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