GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - A U.S. government official's eyewitness account of a firefight that killed a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan could derail the Bush administration's plans to put a former child soldier on military trial, defense attorneys said Thursday. The witness described a 2002 firefight in Afghanistan in which Khadr, then 15, allegedly threw a grenade that killed Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer, a Delta Force commando, at an al-Qaida compound, the defense attorneys said.Omar Khadr's lead attorney, Navy Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler, said the evidence could prove the Guantanamo detainee does not merit a designation as an "unlawful enemy combatant," which is required for him to face trial on this U.S. Navy base.
The evidence was revealed by U.S. military prosecutors to defense attorneys on Tuesday - five years after the Canadian teenager was detained. The attorneys couldn't discuss the classified evidence or identify the witness, but Kuebler was clearly angry over the limited disclosure to defense attorneys. "How much other exculpatory evidence is out there behind the black curtain that we can't see?" Kuebler told reporters.
| We don't know enough to know what the firefight was about, or why Khadr would be legal or illegal on that basis. What we do know is that even Carla del Ponte could run this farce at a faster pace. |
Khadr, the Toronto-born son of an alleged al-Qaida financier, answered the judge's questions politely, saying "Yes, sir" and "Yeah," and did not enter a plea to charges including murder, conspiracy and spying. He appeared for the hearing with a short beard and the white prison uniform reserved for the most compliant detainees.
| May well be that the smart thing to do is to repatriate him to Afghanistan and let Kharzi deal with him. Toss Khadr into an Afghan prison for a couple of years and he'll beg to go back to Gitmo. |
| Because these aren't supposed to be trials, they're supposed to be status tribunals. Is he a legal or illegal combatant? You should be able to answer that in an hour or so. This farce raises the spectre of our combat forces saying, in the field, "screw this" and just popping a prisoner. That isn't right, and we don't want that to happen. But our people in the field have to know that illegal combatants will be dealt with both harshly and quickly. |
Only unlawful enemy combatants can be tried by the military commissions, according to the Military Commissions Act, approved by Congress and signed into law by U.S. President George W. Bush last year. The law sought to legitimize war-crime tribunals that had been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
Brownback dismissed the charges against Khadr in June because he had not been classified as an "unlawful" enemy combatant. A hastily created military appeals court then ruled that Brownback had authority to attach that label himself. But the judge said Thursday that there was no need to immediately address Khadr's status because defense lawyers have not formally requested clarification. Brownback also dismissed Kuebler's request that he remove himself for lack of impartiality.
The defense team, meanwhile, has challenged the appeals court ruling and said they were not conceding that the military court has jurisdiction.
The judge declined to answer questions about whether the tribunal system is constitutional, but acknowledged criticism from the Pentagon for dismissing Khadr's charges in June. "The DoD (Department of Defense) people, they didn't like what I wrote," said Brownback.
Critics said Thursday's events reflect flaws in a system that has yet to produce a trial. "It does question the wisdom of bringing everyone down here for a proceeding with a status and procedure that is still unknown and unknowable," said Jumana Musa, advocacy director of Amnesty International.
Khadr is one of three Guantanamo detainees facing charges under the Military Commissions Act. The military plans to prosecute as many as 80 of the 320 men at Guantanamo. But the Supreme Court may have other ideas. A challenge to the reconstituted system is pending and detainee lawyers have asked the justices to guarantee they can challenge their confinement in U.S. civilian courts.
