Ex-chief prosecutor at Guantanamo to testify that military trials flawed

[Newsjock]

Source: Associated Press

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - The former chief military prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay said Thursday he would be a defense witness for the driver of Osama bin Laden, marking what is perhaps the most stunning turnaround at the first U.S. military tribunals since the World War II era.

Air Force Col. Morris Davis, once a passionate defender of the military commissions but who resigned last October over alleged political interference, told The Associated Press he has agreed to appear for the defense at an April hearing for Salim Ahmed Hamdan, whose lawyers are seeking to dismiss war-crimes charges against him.

«It is somewhat ironic,» Davis conceded in a telephone interview from Washington.

At the pretrial hearing inside the U.S. military base in southeast Cuba, Hamdan's defense team plans to argue that the alleged political interference cited by Davis violates the Military Commissions Act, Hamdan's military lawyer, Navy Lt. Brian Mizer, told the AP.

Read more: http://www.pr-inside.com/ex-chief-prosecutor-at-guantanamo-to-r450581.htm

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Source is AP, despite the link

[fascisthunter]

1. BREAKING: FreeRepublic Member Sends Mysterious Package

to Guantanamo Bay’s former chief
military prosecutor.

[annabanana]

2. kick because this matters. . .n/t

[msanthrope]

3. Possibly the biggest news on Gitmo in a long time--- n/t

[Hissyspit]

4. Ex-Guantanamo Prosecutor to Testify for Suspect: Lawyer

Source: Agence France-Presse

Ex-Guantanamo prosecutor to testify for suspect: lawyer

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The former chief prosecutor at the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay is to testify for the defense in the case of an ex-driver for Osama bin Laden, a lawyer for the suspect said Friday. Colonel Morris Davis, who resigned from his post in October, is to testify on behalf of Salim Hamdan, a Yemeni accused of delivering weapons to Al-Qaeda operatives, who is due to be tried by a special military commission.

"We do expect him to testify," said one of Hamdan's lawyers Andrea Prasow, referring to Davis, an Air Force officer who from 2005 to 2007 oversaw investigations against suspects at the base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Davis wrote in the New York Times this week that he resigned over a conflict with his superiors on whether information extracted by waterboarding -- a form of simulated drowning widely considered torture -- could be used at a trial.

He considered evidence obtained by waterboarding "off-limits" for the commissions. "To do otherwise is not only an affront to American justice, it will potentially put prosecutors at risk for using illegally obtained evidence," he wrote.

Read more: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gDOPD7U_LN3bU51mV54F97stXeow

[snot]

5. big story -- k&r'd

[PDJane]

6. This administration is losing every

Upright, moral, ethical and able civil servant within their reach.....