Top Officer in Guantanam Hearings Urges Dismissal of Two Panelists

[cal04]

Top Officer in Guantanamo Terror Hearings Urges Dismissal of Two Panelists, Alleging Possible Bias
The presiding officer in charge of U.S. military commissions in Guantanamo Bay has recommended that two panel members be dismissed from hearing cases of suspected terrorists because they could be considered biased. Army Col. Peter Brownback made the recommendations in a letter to commissions' appointing authority and obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday. The recommendation for their dismissal came after defense challenges last month at preliminary hearings for four Guantanamo prisoners charged with war crimes.

The two men Brownback said should step aside were Air Force Lt. Col. Timothy K. Toomey, an intelligence officer who was involved in capture of suspects in Afghanistan, and alternate panel member, Army Lt. Col. Curt S. Cooper, who admitted calling Guantanamo prisoners "terrorists." "Specifically, his comments that the detainees in Cuba were terrorists, or words to that effect, might cause some to believe that he has prejudged the cases," Brownback wrote in the letter dated Sept. 15, 2004, and made in response to a series of challenges.

Toomey's activities in Afghanistan could be seen as problematic, wrote Brownback, who recommended keeping panel members Marine Col. Jack K. Sparks Jr. and Marine Col. R. Thomas Bright - two members individually challenged because of their links with the war on terror. Sparks lost a reservist working as a firefighter in the Sept. 11 attack on New York City, and Bright assembled lists of detainees bound for Guantanamo. Brownback's recommendations came after an unexpected challenge from the government's top prosecutor who joined defense attorneys in their assertion that Brownback's close relationship with the commission's appointing authority could be viewed as a conflict.

Brownback said it was inappropriate for him to comment on challenges made to his impartiality but said he had evaluated whether he could do the job. He is the only person on the five member panel with law experience. "To the best of my knowledge, there was not any item brought forth in voir dire (challenging of members) which might cause a reasonable person to believe that I could not provide a full or fair trial or to show that my impartiality might reasonably be questioned," Brownback said. Chief prosecutor Army Col. Robert Swann asked Brownback to evaluate his suitability.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBKYA4P7ZD.html

[teryang]

1. Brownback is blind

the government's own attorney says he has a conflict. What an idiot. "You two guys gotta go. I'm staying."