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Guantanamo trials unfair: Nuremberg prosecutor
The US war crimes tribunals at Guantanamo have betrayed the principles of fairness that made the Nazi war crimes trials at Nuremberg a judicial landmark, one of the US Nuremberg prosecutors says.
"I think Robert Jackson, who's the architect of Nuremberg, would turn over in his grave if he knew what was going on at Guantanamo," Nuremberg prosecutor Henry King Jr said.
"It violates the Nuremberg principles, what they're doing, as well as the spirit of the Geneva Conventions of 1949."
King, 88, served under Jackson, the US Supreme Court justice who was the chief prosecutor at the trials created by the Allied powers to try Nazi military and political leaders after World War II in Nuremberg, Germany.
"The concept of a fair trial is part of our tradition, our heritage," King said from Ohio, where he lives. "That's what made Nuremberg so immortal - fairness, a presumption of innocence, adequate defence counsel, opportunities to see the documents they're being tried with."
King, who teaches law at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, also questioned whether former Guantanamo prisoner David Hicks deserved to be tried as a war criminal.
After being held at Guantanamo for more than five years, the Australian pleaded guilty in March to a charge of providing material support for terrorism and was sent home to serve the rest of his nine-month sentence.
"He's not an arch-criminal type, just a guy who was disaffected from the system," King said.
Hicks, who admitted training with al-Qaeda and briefly fighting on its side in Afghanistan, is the only person convicted in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunals.
King, who interrogated Hitler's architect, Albert Speer, was incredulous that the Guantanamo rules left open the possibility of using evidence obtained through coercion.
"To torture people and then you can bring evidence you obtained into court? Hearsay evidence is allowed? Some evidence is available to the prosecution and not to the defendants? This is a type of 'justice' that Jackson didn't dream of," King said.
He said the Guantanamo prisoners should be tried in the court-martial system or the US federal courts, under fair rules that leave open the possibility of acquittal. Three Nuremberg defendants were acquitted, King noted.
The Bush administration has said it needs to hold the special tribunals at Guantanamo in order to protect national security. Last year the US Supreme Court struck down the first version of the Guantanamo trials as illegal.
The 2006 Military Commissions Act, which set revised rules for trying suspected terrorists at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, "sort of turns its back on Nuremberg", King said. "I don't think it's a credit to us to have this thing."
"The United States has always stood for fairness. That's the important thing. We were the ones who started war crimes tribunals and we're the architects. I don't think we should turn our back on that architecture."Comment
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White House meet on Guantanamo cancelled under pressure
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House on Friday cancelled a planned meeting on the Guantanamo Bay military prison after media reports that it was close to a decision to shut the Cuba detention center.
White House spokesman Dana Perino denied that a decision on whether to close the controversial camp was "imminent" but reiterated President George W. Bush's avowed aim to shut the center "as soon as possible."
"It was a private meeting ... people meet on this issue regularly and frequently," Perino said.
She admitted that a meeting had been planned for Friday between different federal agencies on Friday to discuss Guantanamo Bay, where some 375 "war on terror" suspects are still being held most without charge, and without access to outside visitors.
She would not say why the meeting was cancelled late Thursday, simply saying it had been an ordinary meeting.
"I think yesterday's reporting indicates something was imminent. That is not the case," Perino said.
Time was still needed to work out which of the detainees should be tried by the United States, she said, but insisted there were moves to try to empty the US military base located in southern Cuba.
"This president has been on record over the years of saying he wants to close Guantanamo Bay, he has directed his administration to work towards that end," she said.
The State Department is working with countries whose nationals are held in Guantanamo Bay to send some back, Perino said, adding "that has in some way worked, but not as much as we would like."
A prison is also being renovated in Afghanistan which could then take some of the Guantanamo detainees "but that's going to take a little bit of time," she said.
"We hope to be able to transfer several dozens back to Afghanistan from Guantanamo in a near future, but nothing is imminent."Comment
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صدور کیفرخواست برای شش زندانی گوانتانامو
خالد شیخ محمد در سال 2003 در پاکستان دستگیر شد
وزارت دفاع آمریکا می گوید برای 6 نفر از زندانیان بازداشتگاه گوانتانامو، در ارتباط با حملات یازدهم سپتامبر 2001 رسما متهم شده اند.
دادستان ها برای این 6 متهم تقاضای مجازات مرگ خواهند کرد.
خالد شیخ محمد، که گفته شده طراح توطئه بوده، از جمله این 6 نفر است.
قرار است یک دادگاه نظامی بحث انگیز، به این اتهامات رسیدگی کند.
این اولین باری خواهد بود که زندانیان گوانتانامو، در ارتباط با اتهاماتی که مستقیما به حملات یازدهم سپتامبر مربوط می شود محاکمه می شوند.
د رحملات یازدهم سپتامبر نزدیک به 3 هزار نفر کشته شدند.
ژنرال توماس هارتمن، مشاور حقوقی رئیس دفتر کمیسیون نظامی وزارت دفاع آمریکا، گفت اتهامات نشان دهنده این است که القاعده برای حمله به آمریکا" طرح دراز مدت و بسیار پیشرفته ای" داشته است.
شیخ محمد که گفته می شود هنگام دستگیری در پاکستان در مارس 2003، نفر سوم در رده فرماندهی شبکه القاعده بوده، به قرار گزارشات به گردن زدن دانیل پرل، روزنامه نگار آمریکایی در سال 2002 اعتراف کرده است.
محاکمه 6 متهم توسط دادگاه نظامی صورت می گیرد که طبق قانون کمیسیون های نظامی، که کنگره آمریکا آن را در سال 2006 تصویب کرد، تشکیل می شود.
این قانون اجازه تشکیل دادگاه هایی را می دهد که مظنونین به تروریست بودن را که آمریکایی نیستند محاکمه می کند.
دو تن از زندانیان گوانتانامو به این قانون اعتراض کرده و گفته اند آنها از حقوق خود برای رسیدگی به پرونده شان در دادگاه های مدنی آمریکا، محروم شده اند.
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you know whats retarded these retarders cotantly talke about guantanamo but what about other prisions around the world were they tourture students and civillians
atleast Guantanamo is combatabts
it such hypocrocy
G-d determines who walks into your life....It is up to you to decide who you let walk away, who you let stay, and who you refuse to let go.
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