Ex-Gitmo Prosecutor Testifies About Push for High-Profile and Faster Cases

Guantanamo/Detainees

Ex-Gitmo Prosecutor Testifies About Push for High-Profile and Faster Cases

Posted Apr 29, 2008, 05:38 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss

The former chief prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay testified for a defendant yesterday that Pentagon officials pressured him to hurry cases along and to prosecute high-profile detainees first for “strategic political value.”

Col. Morris Davis testified that Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, who oversaw the military commissions, had asked him to act more quickly, the New York Times reports. Davis says Hartmann told him, “If we don’t get some cases going before the election, this thing’s going to implode.”

Davis also testified that Defense Department general counsel William Haynes II made clear that he expected convictions in every case, the Washington Post reports.

"He said, 'We can't have acquittals,' " Davis said. " 'We've been holding these guys for years. How can we explain acquittals? We have to have convictions.' "

Davis said Hartmann had micromanaged the prosecution effort and had overruled his decision to ban evidence from waterboarding. He said Hartmann treated prosecutors with "cruelty and maltreatment."

The hearing for the defendant, Osama bin Laden driver Salim Hamdan, continues today. The Times reported Hamdan appeared disheveled and the Post said he seemed to show some evidence of mental deterioration. His lawyers say mistreatment and solitary confinement have harmed their client’s mental state.

Lawyers for Hamdan hope to use Davis’ testimony to get charges against their client thrown out. Davis, however, testified he never had any doubts about Hamdan’s guilt.

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