Army judge in Guantánamo Bay rebukes government

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Source: Miami Herald

n a rebuke to the government, an Army judge Friday issued five successive orders instructing the Pentagon to do more to help lawyers for Canadian captive Omar Khadr build a defense case.

Khadr, 21, faces a trial by military commissions as an alleged al Qaeda terrorist. He is accused of throwing a grenade in a July 2002 firefight in Khost, Afghanistan, that killed a U.S. soldier. He was 15.

VICTORY FOR DEFENSE

The judge ordered prosecutors to give Khadr's lawyers the list of all American personnel who interrogated the Canadian as well as access to their handwritten notes, made both in Afghanistan and at the prison camp here.

He postponed a May 5 trial date to allow for more hearings on acceptable evidence, but set no date. And he ordered that an on-scene commander expected to testify against Khadr at the trial submit to questioning by the Canadian's defense lawyers.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_dade/v-print/story/457582.html

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1. "Victory for Defense"?

Wow. Just wow. How far down the rabbit hole have the folks at the Miami Herald gone when the simple following of the rules of criminal trial procedure is somehow a victory for the defense? How about a victory for the constitution? Lord knows it could stand to win one from time to time while a Bush is squatting in the White House.