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Guantanamo's first secret national security session a mystery
Pentagon prosecutors and defense lawyers in the USS Cole death penalty case held the first closed hearing of the Obama war court Friday, a 78-minute secret session that excluded both the public and the accused al-Qaida terrorist.Army Brig. Gen. Mark Martins, the chief prosecutor, disclosed the length of the national security session but gave no details. He said the judge ordered production of a redacted transcript but gave no timetable for release. There was a secret session. Thats all I can say, said veteran criminal defense lawyer Rick Kammen after the hearing on a subject so sensitive the motion being argued was called CLASSIFIED on the war court docket. In red. For the occasion, Kammen was sporting a kangaroo lapel pin. Real justice occurs in the sunshine, not in secret, he said, ducking every question about the first closed hearing of President Barack Obamas war court. How long did it last? No comment. Were there witnesses? He would not say. Neither would the general, who said a transcript of any unclassified portions might make clear if anyone testified. It was the first closed hearing under the Military Commissions Act of 2009, the war court Obama reformed to give the accused terrorists greater rights. Kammen said, however, the closed hearing violated the rights of his client, Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, who got to Guantánamo in 2006 after four years of secret CIA custody that included waterboarding and interrogating with a revving power drill and racked pistol. Posted by: tipper 2013-06-15 |
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