[NYTr] US accused of concealing Gitmo gulag evidence

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Financial Times via MSNBC - Nov 9, 2007
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21701433/

US accused of concealing Guantánamo evidence

By Demetri Sevastopulo in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba
Financial Times

Omar Khadr, the 21-year old Canadian captured in Afghanistan five years
ago, was on Thursday escorted in handcuffs into a courtroom at
Guantanamo Bay for the latest attempt to bring him to justice.

Wearing a black beard, blue prison shoes, and a white tunic worn by
rule-abiding detainees, Mr Khadr sat calmly as the Pentagon restarted
the military commissions that have been plagued with legal hurdles.

The Pentagon hopes that the military commissions will help legitimise
the legal process at Guantanamo Bay, which has come under intense
criticism from human rights groups and foreign governments since the US
first started transferring detainees to the Cuba prison in 2002.

Immediately after the hearing, however, defence lawyers for Mr Khadr,
who is accused of killing a US soldier with a grenade, renewed
criticisms of the process by claiming that the US government had known
for years about secret evidence that could help his defence.

Lieutenant Commander Bill Kueber, the chief military defence lawyer for
Mr Khadr, said prosecution lawyers had this week made him aware of
classified evidence that could help determine that Mr Khadr was not an
"unlawful" enemy combatant, which could impact the ability of the
Pentagon to try him at the military commissions. He said the disclosure
underscored the unfair nature of the commissions, which he said were
designed not to provide a fair trial, but to generate convictions.

"How much other exculpatory evidence is out there behind the black
curtain that we cannot see?" he said. "How can we be on the eve of a
hearing and have newly discovered evidence is beyond me…that goes to
the fundamental element of fairness here".

Jennifer Daskal, a Human Rights Watch lawyer who observed the
proceedings, said it was "outrageous" that the prosecution had tried to
push ahead with the trial yesterday in spite of the existence of the
new evidence.

The Bush administration has faced multiple legal challenges over the
military commissions in which it hopes to try about 80 of the 320
detainees remaining at Guantanamo. So far, only David Hicks, an
Australian detainee, has plead guilty. No detainees have had a complete
military trial.

Congress passed legislation authorising new commissions last year after
the Supreme Court struck down the original commissions, which it
concluded breached US and international law.

The Pentagon brought Mr Khadr before the new commissions earlier this
year. But Colonel Peter Brownback, the military judge, determined that
the commissions did not have jurisdiction to hear cases for "unlawful
enemy combatants" because, he said, Congress had intended the courts to
try only "enemy combatants".

A military court later overturned that decision, paving the way for
Thursday's hearing, but a federal court in Washington is reviewing that
decision.

Cmdr Kuebler also challenged the independence of Col Brownback on
Thursday, arguing that he was too vested in a flawed system to make
impartial decisions.

Cmdr Kuebler claimed the judge had mentioned taking "a lot of heat"
over his previous ruling in the Khadr case with which the Pentagon
disagreed. Col Brownback did not deny making the comments, but stressed
that nobody in authority had put pressure on him.

After the hearing, Cmdr Kueger urged Canada to do more to help Mr
Khadr, pointing out that the UK and Australian governments had
successfully repatriated their nationals from Guantanamo. He added that
part of the problem of trying Mr Khadr at Guantanamo was that the
system made no adjustments for the fact that he was a "child soldier"

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