Logistics, Secrecy, Hamper Guantanamo Trials
http://www.foxbusiness.com/index.html (Reuters) - When accused Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed grumbled to the U.S. military war tribunal he couldn't get paper or file legal motions with the court, he was told to put his complaints in legal papers and file them with the court. When he asked for documents to be translated into Arabic so he could read them, he was told there
was no requirement for the U.S. military commissions that will try his death penalty case to do that. But the judge said he would think about it. Lawyers for the five men accused of plotting the hijacked airliner attacks on the United States say the complaints brought last week before the war court in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, exemplify the trouble the men face getting a fair trial before the first U.S. military tribunals since World War Two. "There is a big problem with the system," Mohammed, the Pakistani who has allegedly admitted to planning the Sept. 11 attacks from start to finish, told the court. Mohammed and four others, Walid bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mustafa alHawsawi, face conspiracy and murder charges in the 2001 attacks that triggered the Bush administration's global war on terrorism. From simple logistics like paper, computers and law libraries to strict secrecy rules that will prevent the five from seeing classified evidence before trial, the defendants and their lawyers say the tribunals are not giving the men a fair chance in a case that could lead to their executions. "You have from the sublime to the ridiculous. You have from the mundane to the serious and significant," said David Nevin, a defense lawyer assigned to Mohammed. Ali asked for access to a computer and a law library. Mohammed asked for paper to write on and said he had filed a motion that the judge still hadn't received two days later. The men are held at an isolated, maximum-security prison camp in southeastern Cuba that has been condemned by human and legal rights advocates. Lawyers say it is difficult to even arrange to talk to the men.
Letter to the Judge Military officials have offered no details about how they will do something as simple as getting a letter from a prisoner to the judge, despite knowing since 2006, when the Military Commissions Act gave them the right, that Guantanamo detainees could be defending themselves. "We are deep into that process," said Army Col. Lawrence Morris, the chief prosecutor. "We are in the process of working through the details of how to accommodate their interest in having access to information." The secrecy rules could prove the toughest challenge to the suspects. Three of the five have been given permission to act as their own lawyers, despite stern warnings from the judge that it was a "bad idea." They won't be able to travel to find witnesses or investigate. The terrorism suspects can't get security clearance to read classified material, so they won't be able to pore over documents that might offer exculpatory evidence, and the prosecution is under no obligation to hand them that evidence, or present it in court, defense lawyers say. They can have "stand-by" lawyers with security clearance to help them. But the lawyers won't be able to discuss secret material with the accused.
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