Friday, November 19, 2010

The Ghailani trial did not "deliver justice"

The testimony of Hussein Abebe, the terrorist who sold Ghailani the dynamite used in the  bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Tanzania, was suppressed; in a military commission, where this guy should have been tried, it wouldn't have been.  
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5 comments:

Stephanie said...

I take it you didn't bother to read Morris Davis' commentary. He explains why this criticism of the civil trial is misplaced.

November 19, 2010 at 10:22:00 AM CST
Michael said...

I read it, don't agree.

November 19, 2010 at 10:24:00 AM CST
Stephanie said...

What level of expertise do you have with trying cases in a military tribunal that trumps Col. Davis'?

November 19, 2010 at 10:26:00 AM CST
Michael said...

Your "expert" has a substantial bias:

My policy as the chief prosecutor for the military commissions at Guantánamo was that evidence derived through waterboarding was off limits. That should still be our policy. To do otherwise is not only an affront to American justice, it will potentially put prosecutors at risk for using illegally obtained evidence.
Unfortunately, I was overruled on the question, and I resigned my position to call attention to the issue — efforts that were hampered by my being placed under a gag rule and ordered not to testify at a Senate hearing. While some high-level military and civilian officials have rightly expressed indignation on the issue, the current state can be described generally as indifference and inaction.

http://law.cwru.edu/lectures/files/2009-2010/20090911_3-Davis-NYTimesOp-Ed2.17.08.pdf

November 19, 2010 at 1:53:00 PM CST
Stephanie said...

So, just like in the civilian trial, the prosecutors tried to use testimony obtained through torture. But Davis says that, like in the civilian trial, there's reason to expect that the military tribunal will not allow such testimony (in spite of prosecutors' efforts to use it), and Davis bases his prediction on the case he describes.

November 19, 2010 at 1:57:00 PM CST

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